Month: May 2019

Sydneysiders will have their first water restrictions imposed in almost a decade to help stem a rapid decline in the city's reservoirs amid the state's ongoing drought.

The Berejiklian government decided to bring forward the level 1 curbs to June 1, or about two months earlier than would be triggered under the Metropolitan Water Plan.

The formal trigger for such restrictions is when dam levels hit 50 per cent. On Tuesday, they were at 53.5 per cent and losing 0.5 percentage points per week, according to WaterNSW.

Sydney Water have said the city's dams have fallen faster over the past two years than during the Millennium Drought, with inflows at levels not seen since the 1940s.

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The water restrictions will target outdoor water use, although the government is also planning to encourage the public to save water where possible.

Fines for breaches are expected to be $220 for individuals and $550 for companies – with a three-month grace period to allow people to adjust.  About 75 per cent of Sydney Water's output goes to residential users.

The first stage of water curbs will seek to mandate the so-called Water Wise Rules that have been voluntary to this point, according to the Metropolitan Water Plan. These include requiring all garden hoses to have a trigger nozzle or other attachment that permits an instant on-off use.

Lawns and gardens should also not be watered between 10am and 4pm to limit evaporation losses.

Sprinklers and watering systems will also not be permitted, except for drip-irrigation systems or automated watering systems with controllers that automatically limit usage based on soil moisture and weather conditions.

Residents will also not be allowed to hose hard surfaces like paths and driveways, except for health and safety reasons or in an emergency.

Residents can only wash vehicles, boats and buildings with a bucket, a hose fitted with a trigger nozzle or high-pressure cleaning equipment, and those seeking to fill a new or renovated pool will need a permit if it contains more than 10,000 litres of water.

Exclusions for level 1 restrictions include bore water use and where there is "no practical alternative".

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Other exclusions include households laying fresh turf with watering permitted for a week after installation. Professional gardeners – who often work through the day – will be able to apply for exemption permits.

The restrictions are coming into force even as the Sydney Desalination Plant ramps up towards full capacity. It was restarted last year after repairs following a tornado strike in 2015, and is producing about 850 million litres a week. a spokesman said on Saturday.

At full capacity, the plant will supply 250 million litres of drinking water daily, or about 15 per cent of Sydney's needs.

While not a direct proxy for the city's catchments, Sydney has been particularly dry for the past two months.

Observatory Hill has had no rain in its gauge since May 6 and may not get any until Saturday.

Rainfall since the start of April has been just 25.8mm, trailing only 1888 as the driest spell for those two months in Sydney in records going back to 1858, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau’s winter outlook is for conditions that favour below-average rainfall across most eastern Australia, including in the region around Sydney.

Those seeking to be excluded from the water restrictions can phone Sydney Water on 13 20 92 or email [email protected].

More to come

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You've probably never heard of David Briggs. But you've very likely heard of Newspoll. That's the opinion poll that Malcolm Turnbull formalised as the benchmark of prime ministerial performance.

Remember? Tony Abbott had to go when he "lost" 30 in a row. Then, eventually, Turnbull himself had to go after he "lost" 38 of them.

Briggs is the man behind the poll. So that made him, in effect, the arbiter of whether Australia's leaders were seen to be succeeding or failing. He was the spokesman for the jury, as well as the judge, in the courtroom of Australian politics. All it took to finish the process was the executioners in the party caucuses to deliver the punishment.

But Briggs is much more than Newspoll, published by Rupert Murdoch's The Australian. He's also the man behind the YouGov Galaxy polls published by Murdoch's tabloid papers. And he's the man behind the exit poll conducted for Nine at the federal election.

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Beyond his polling for media outlets, Briggs this year was also the pollster for the Labor Party. Taken together, this made him by far the most influential and important pollster in the land, the narrator of the Australian political story.

He also got the election result wrong. And because he got it wrong, all his clients got it wrong. That included the Labor Party which, to the end, thought it was cruising to victory two weekends ago.

So when I phoned Briggs last week and asked him how he was doing, I wasn't surprised when he replied "shithouse". He made no attempt to gild the lily. "It's very sad," he said.

He was also as bewildered as everyone else as to how his polls had consistently pointed to a Labor win. "Our final poll of the 2016 election campaign was the most accurate there has ever been," he said, when measured against the actual result.

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"We used exactly the same methodology for this election that we used in 2016. Since I started at Newspoll in 1985, there hasn't been this style of disaster. Australia has been well served." Till now. He had already begun a post-mortem examination of the Newspoll poll data.

Briggs points out this election had some unique features. Clive Palmer's $60 million ad campaign, for instance, which was more than double the sum spent by the two main parties combined. We might ask what effect that had, Briggs says, but "it still doesn't explain why we were overstating Labor's vote by 3 to 4 per cent."

How did one pollster reach such a position of dominance? Through the quality and consistency of his results. Other polling companies always cast a nervous eye at his results as they published their own. Clients went to Briggs because of his reputation.

The long-time Labor pollster John Utting was quick to ask whether Briggs was guilty of a conflict of interest. He pointed out that Briggs' company, Galaxy YouGov Research, presented itself as an "honest broker and dispassionate observer" while at the same time it was "intimately involved in Labor's campaign." This, said Utting, "beggars belief."

Briggs has two responses. First: "It's not a conflict of interest. All our clients want the same thing. They all want accurate information. We were doing our best for all our clients." And second, he discounts Utting as a fair-minded critic: "It's sour grapes from someone who lost the contract" as the quantitative pollster for Labor.

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But if this were only the story of the failure of Briggs' polling constellation, the problem would be easier to isolate. In fact, all the major published polls were wrong, and wrong in the same way.

The Essential poll published by The Guardian and the Ipsos poll published by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, consistently pointed to the same outcome – a Labor victory.

There were variations in the detail. For instance, the Ipsos finding of a very low Labor primary vote turned out to be exactly and uniquely right. But in the election-deciding measure, the two-party preferred share of the vote, all the pollsters indicated Labor would win with 51 or 52 per cent. In the event, it was the Coalition that won 51.6 per cent. Labor lost with 48.4 on the count so far.

This was an industry failure. Like Briggs, the Ipsos pollster, Jess Elgood, is baffled. "We treated and presented our data identically to the 2016 election," she says.

As for the reason for the clustering of the various polls around the same – wrong – conclusion, she points out that Ipsos has been unafraid to publish "outlier" results, even though it has been criticised for doing so. She has no explanation for the clustering in the final polls: "I think it's far too early to say." Ipsos, like all the others, is doing its own introspection.

All the pollsters could take shelter under the defence of margin of error. All polls are just estimates of a larger reality, and all are published with the note that they have margins of error of 2 to 3 per cent. But all the pollsters reject this as a cop-out. All recognise that they have a duty to do better.

"For me," says Elgood, "this is a lesson in caution." That should be the lesson for the country at large. The betting markets are often cited as a better indicator. They were spectacularly wrong-footed in this election too. The theory that punters are smarter than pollsters is now a dead letter.

But other indicators gave contrary signals. Ipsos conducted mid-campaign focus groups for this newspaper that pointed to a lack of appetite for change of government, and the main front-page news report began: "Uncommitted voters know about Labor's plans for new taxes but have heard almost nothing about the promised benefits, in a sign of potential trouble for Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's election prospects."

Our reporters on the road, testing opinion the old-fashioned way, also reported the lack of appetite for change of government, the scepticism about Labor and Bill Shorten. Opinion polls conducted in individual key seats also proved to be more useful indicators than national averages, although polling a meaningful number is a big and expensive exercise. The political parties poll around 20 each to map their battles.

But because of our long conditioning to the pseudo-scientific infallibility of the opinion polls, the country allowed alternative data points to be pushed aside. The pollsters need to address their problems. And the rest of us need to recover our common sense.

Peter Hartcher is the political editor.

A member of the Comancheros and four other men have been arrested in connection with the death of a man who was shot multiple times outside a home in Sydney's west.

Emergency services were called to Meridian Place at Doonside about 7.30pm on Monday after reports of a shooting.

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NSW Ambulance paramedics treated Craig Anderson, 51, who had suffered several gunshot wounds, but he died at the scene.

Investigators say that Mr Anderson, who was known to police, had been in a dispute with one of the men over something trivial.

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"The personal nature of this has been escalating for some time," Detective Superintendent Scott Cook told reporters on Tuesday.

"It's not clear what the dispute was over."

Police comforted several people at a house in Meridian Place on Monday who appeared highly distressed.

"Many" neighbours called police after hearing gunshots, Det Supt Cook said.

A crime scene was established, and officers from Blacktown Police Area Command and State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad commenced inquiries.

An hour after the shooting, five men, aged 44, 29, 28, 27, and 22, were arrested after vehicle stops in the St Marys area, police said in a statement on Tuesday.

Police seized four cars and one firearm found in a vehicle.

The 44-year-old and 28-year-old man were taken to St Marys Police Station and the other three were taken to Penrith Police Station. They all continue to assist with inquiries. No charges have been laid.

"Murder is not acceptable in New South Wales," Det Supt Cook said.

"It's not tolerable. This is bad behaviour, not sophisticated organised crime."

How easy is it for anyone to become homeless?

To be an intelligent, kind, articulate person and one day find yourself sleeping on the streets?

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Just ask Rachel, 37, who grew up in a middle class house in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs, and who now sleeps in parks at night.

‘‘I didn’t think that I would end up here at all,’’ she says. ‘‘It didn’t take much.’’

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It also happened to alleged murder victim Courtney Herron, who was from a loving family and went to the exclusive Genazzano College in Kew as a teenager and yet due to a complex set of circumstances, found herself homeless at age 25.

Ms Herron’s plight, and her death, her battered body found in Royal Park in the inner suburb of Parkville, on Saturday, did not surprise Rachel*.

‘‘It’s not uncommon that [homeless] people would get bashed ,’’ she said.

Rachel feels society is getting more violent ‘‘and we don’t understand what compassion is anymore’’.

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She says many of today’s homeless are women, although there is ‘‘a smidge more men’’.

But it is more dangerous for women.

In the past, Rachel spent many nights in Melbourne’s CBD but ‘‘you sleep with one eye open,’’ she says.

A drunk might throw water on you, and you can’t get warm or dry. A year ago, in a lane off Flinders Street, she was kicked and punched in an altercation. She says when you don’t sleep, the next day you’re so tired you look like you’re on drugs, and the police can move you on.

These days, Rachel spends only the days in the CBD, holding a sign that asks not for cash but for a job, be it mowing or dog walking.

‘‘I’m busting to go back to work. I have got a little bit of work from this sign. I did a lady’s ironing and a bit of gardening, odds and ends. But I’d do factory work or retail, or whatever.’’

At night Rachel retrieves her bedding from a railway locker and she and a male friend head out of the CBD. They take the train to Box Hill or Balwyn, where they sleep in a park, preferably in a rotunda, or under a tree; somewhere ‘‘as dry and as warm as I can get it to be’’.

Rachel wants us to challenge the stereotypes of the homeless. ‘‘A lot of us are here because it’s a crappy situation we’re in, and we’re trying to get out of it.’’

Fifteen years ago, Rachel’s mother became ill, suffering seven strokes. As a loving daughter, Rachel looked after her, for which she received a carer’s pension.

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When her mother died two years ago, age 60, Rachel did not have work experience to find a job. Without a job, she couldn’t afford rent. Within six months, she was evicted.

She now sees that ‘‘it really is a fine line, between having somewhere safe to call home, and being out here’’.

According to the Council to Homeless Persons, 24,817 people were homeless on census night 2016, and 10,432, or 42 per cent of those, were female.

CHP chief executive Jenny Smith said there are no one-bedroom rentals anywhere in Victoria that a single woman on Centrelink can afford.

‘‘Even rooming houses and most share houses charge rents in excess of 50 per cent of people’s incomes,’’ Ms Smith said. ‘

‘‘So if you lose your job, or you have to move out of your rental, and you’re on a low income you can very quickly find that there is nowhere to turn.

‘‘You might couch surf for a while until you wear out your welcome, or stay in a rooming houses. But rooming houses are often dangerous and women are particularly vulnerable, so then they end up on the street.

‘‘That’s why we need the Victorian government to deliver at least 3,000 new units of social housing each year and the federal government to more than match that effort.’’

Last January, in response to a public outcry over the number of rough sleepers on Melbourne streets, the government released a plan to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

It included almost $20 million for outreach teams across Victoria that can approach rough sleepers directly to offer support. Another $9 million was spent on six teams of housing workers to support people once they move into social or public housing, and $13 million for 106 accommodation units and onsite support.

But while homelessness services welcomed these initiatives, safe and affordable housing is so limited that workers are often only able to refer people to motels and rooming houses. The social housing wait list is more than 80,000 people long.

A person with drug and alcohol issues, who is escaping family violence or has been repeatedly homeless can be placed on a ‘‘priority’’ list. But the average wait time for priority cases is currently 10 months.

*Not her real name.

Anthony Albanese has been warned by colleagues to hold the line against the government's medium-term tax cuts as the incoming Labor leader puts his stamp on the job by offering to work with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on key policies to end "conflict fatigue".

Meanwhile, the Coalition has opened a dialogue with key Senate crossbenchers, who have requested a briefing with Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and Treasury secretary Phil Gaetjens as they consider whether to support the government's entire $158 billion tax cuts package.

Centre Alliance's Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff could help the government pass the package without Labor's support, but will need to be reassured by regulators that there is a sufficient budget buffer to weather growing economic headwinds.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann called the South Australian crossbenchers two days ago, but Senator Patrick said negotiations had not moved beyond a "holding pattern".

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"If people end up benefiting from a tax cut, there is nothing wrong with that," he said.

"But what happens to people who didn't get a tax cut [if] there's a downturn in the economy. They become much more susceptible to an adverse outcome. That's not just the unemployed, it could also be pensioners."

Mr Albanese challenged Mr Morrison to recall Parliament before June 30 to pass the first tranche of the tax cuts package, which mostly benefits low- and middle-income earners. He pledged Labor's support for that stage, while the later stages were "up for discussion and debate".

But there is concerted resistance within the party for a deal with the government. Outgoing Labor senator Doug Cameron, who remains in the caucus, said it was "crazy to be proposing tax cuts so far out when you don’t know what the economy's going to look like".

He said Labor should back the first tranche of tax cuts but anything further was "a con job". "We must not capitulate to News Corp and the big end of town by becoming Liberal-lite," Senator Cameron warned.

Another left-wing MP, who declined to be named, said it would be a mistake for Labor to acquiesce to the government's demand that the package be passed in full.

"I don't think the message from the [election] is that we need to give in on everything," he said. "I don’t think we need to all of a sudden start delivering tax cuts to the highest income earners in the country."

Some Labor MPs contacted on Monday suggested the party would attempt to split the bill in the Senate – but if that failed they would likely be forced to wave through the whole thing.

Others argued the government was desperate to legislate its core election promise and Labor could afford to stare it down until the bill was split – especially since stages two and three did not take effect for some years.

Stage two, beginning in 2022, would increase the upper threshold of the 32.5 per cent tax bracket to $120,000 from $90,000. Stage three, starting in 2024, would reduce the 32.5 per cent rate to 30 per cent, meaning all taxpayers earning under $200,000 would only pay 30 cents in the dollar.

Mr Albanese left the door open to supporting the latter stages, but stressed he would not anticipate the decisions of his yet-to-be-assembled shadow cabinet.

Labor's caucus will meet for the first time since the election on Thursday to confirm Mr Albanese as leader, Richard Marles as deputy and the party's frontbench. It is likely former Labor leader Bill Shorten will find a place on the team, as will ACT senator Katy Gallagher.

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On Tuesday, Mr Albanese will travel to Queensland to begin the task of repairing Labor's damaged reputation in a state where the party's primary vote dropped below 27 per cent.

Mr Albanese used his first press conference as leader-elect to offer an olive branch of bipartisanship to the government on the key issues of climate change and recognising Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.

He said voters wanted "solutions, not arguments", and the business community was "crying out for certainty" when it came to climate action after more than a decade of bickering.

"I'm not Tony Abbott," Mr Albanese said, in reference to the former Liberal leader who took a staunchly aggressive approach to his job as opposition leader. "Some reforms require bipartisan support … the time for the ongoing conflict over these issues surely is over."

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Latrell Mitchell's "mad battle" with Will Chambers typified NSW's coming of age this time last year.

Mitchell, the game's hottest young talent, was just 20 years old when he made his Origin debut alongside 10 others rookies. Chambers, a player 10 years his senior, was the ultimate Queensland warrior.

When they met for the first time in the middle of the MCG, Mitchell did not take a backwards step.

Six weeks later, Mitchell had stamped himself as the game's best centre.

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He dominated Chambers at every turn and as NSW begin their preparations for next Wednesday's series opener, he told the Herald he intends to do the same again this year.

"If he’s on the right going up against me, that’s cool. It’s a mad battle. I love going up against Willy," Mitchell said. "He makes me a better player."

Personal battles with his opposite number in the centres have driven Mitchell to lofty new heights in the 12 months since making his Origin debut.

He relishes the one-on-one nature playing in the centres provides, desperate to win the individual battle if it means his team will succeed.

Making the battles personal have occasionally pushed the hottest young talent in the game over the edge but more often than not, it brings out his very best football.

"If I’m opposite a centre, I want to dominate him," Mitchell said. "It’s about making sure that he knows if I’m on my game he needs to be on his game and vice versa. If they have a centre that is playing good, I want to make sure I’m on my game.

"I want to be defending well and then attacking them when I can. That’s why I like playing in the centres."

After a "long" 11 week stint to start the season, Mitchell arrives in NSW camp eager to leave the off-field distractions which have plagued his year to date at the door.

By his own admission, his form has been a touch patchy. Unstoppable one week, average the next.

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"It’s been a long 11 weeks of footy. Coming in here and taking things up another level, it’s going to be pretty good. I’m pretty keen," Mitchell said. "I’m in and out a bit, I think. I had a few average weeks at the start of the year and then I came into my own footy.

"But then I’ve gone back to square one a bit. I’m just trying to stay in the moment, that’s the key for me. Just enjoying it. Even though we have lost our last two, I have really enjoyed playing.

"I’ve had a lot of things going on. It’s been tough. But I really enjoy coming in here and enjoying that."

Mitchell admits there is something about the environment coach Brad Fittler creates which helps him thrive.

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Perhaps it is the no phone policy, a ploy to cultivate the bond held by all players involved.

"It’s really good to get away from that and get to know the boys," Mitchell said. "We leave them in our rooms. It’s a long walk [laughs] but it’s good. I like when Freddy gets the boys together and not having any phones is a really good thing."

Or perhaps it is simply the stage itself. Mitchell seems to save his best football for the matches where all eyes are on him. They were this time last year and they will be again next Wednesday.

"Last year we created something special," he said. "For the boys that have come in, they’re coming into an environment that’s pretty packed.

"We patched things up from the past and now we have to keep going now. We want to create more memories.

"I just want to go out there and play my footy and enjoy being in that arena again."

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Islamabad: Rabia Kanwal's parents were sure her marriage to a wealthy Chinese Muslim she had just met would give her a comfortable future, far from the hardships of their lives in Pakistan. But she had a premonition.

"I was not excited," said Kanwal, 22, who lives in a poor neighbourhood in the city of Gujranwala, in the eastern province of Punjab. "I felt something bad was going to happen."

Arranged marriages are common in Pakistan, but this one was unusual. The groom, who said he was a rich poultry farmer, met Kanwal's family during a months-long stay on a tourist visa. He had to use a Chinese-Urdu translation app to communicate with them, but overall, he made a favourable impression.

Kanwal went through with the wedding. But upon moving to China with her new husband in February, she said, she was disappointed by what she found: He was a poor farmer, not a wealthy one. Far worse, he was not a Muslim. Within days, with the help of the Pakistani Embassy, she was back home and pursuing a divorce.

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Hers was a relatively happy ending, though. In recent weeks, Pakistan has been rocked by charges that at least 150 women were brought to China as brides under false pretences — not only lied to, but in some cases forced into prostitution. Others said they were made to work in bars and clubs, an unacceptable practice in Pakistan's conservative Muslim culture.

At the same time, Kanwal's story is not uncommon in China.

China has one of the most heavily skewed gender ratios in the world, with 106.3 men for every 100 women as of 2017, according to the World Bank. That tilt is a product of nearly three decades of strict enforcement of China's one-child policy and a preference for boys over girls — a combination that caused an untold number of forced abortions and female infanticides.

But the long-term human costs of this gender imbalance have only recently come into view — and they are having an impact far beyond China's borders.

As the boys of the one-child policy era have begun to reach marriage age, the demand for foreign brides like Kanwal has surged, even as the Chinese government has loosened birth restrictions.

The allegations of trafficking are a disturbing aspect of China's growing presence in Pakistan, a longtime ally drawn closer lately by expanding economic ties — including China's Belt and Road initiative.

More Chinese are coming to Pakistan as labourers and investors. In the capital, Islamabad, shops and other businesses have begun catering specifically to them.

The Pakistani government has cracked down on brokers said to have arranged the marriages, arresting at least two dozen Chinese citizens and Pakistanis earlier this month, and charging them with human trafficking. The raids followed an undercover operation that included attending an arranged marriage, Pakistani media reported.

The Chinese Embassy denied that Pakistani brides were being mistreated in China. But Human Rights Watch said last month that the trafficking allegations were "disturbingly similar" to past patterns in which women from other poor Asian countries — North Korea, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam — were brought to China as brides and subjected to abuse.

"Both Pakistan and China should take seriously increasing evidence that Pakistani women and girls are at risk of sexual slavery," the rights group's China director, Sophie Richardson, wrote on its website.

Pakistani investigators said men in China paid the brokers to arrange marriages with local women, staying in rented houses in Pakistan until the weddings were performed. The men covered the costs of the ceremonies and in some cases they paid the women's families the equivalent of thousands of dollars, investigators said.

None of that is illegal in Pakistan. The human trafficking charges come from the allegations that women were forced into prostitution or brought to China under false pretences. In some cases, investigators say, the men were provided with forged documents indicating that they were Muslim.

Other men sought out wives from Pakistan's Christian minority, many of whom are impoverished and subjected to discrimination, investigators said. But virtually all of the women, Christian and Muslim alike, were drawn by the hope of better economic prospects.

"My parents said that our neighbour's girls were happy in China, so I would be, too," Kanwal said.

She said she met her husband at the marriage broker's office in Islamabad, where there were many other Chinese men and Pakistani women. According to Kanwal, he told her family that he was Muslim and recited the first tenet of the Muslim faith, which every follower must know: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet."

But Kanwal never saw him pray, even when they visited the famous Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

In February after the wedding, they flew to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region in western China. After a brief stopover there, they flew on to Henan province in central China.

Then, after a four-hour drive past fields of wheat and corn, they arrived at Dongzhang village in Shandong province, where she saw her husband's duck farm. It was not the sprawling operation of a wealthy man that she had envisioned, but a modest family farm where he lived with his parents and two brothers.

"They were not even Muslim and he had faked it all along," she said. "There weren't even proper washrooms in their house. I got agitated and started crying."

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Her husband, Zhang Shuchen, 33, tells a different story.

Over a meal of cold-tossed pig liver and stir-fried tomato and egg near his family home in Dongzhang, the boyish farmer acknowledged that he had travelled to Pakistan late last year and paid around $US14,500 ($20,900) to a Chinese broker in the hopes of bringing home a Pakistani bride.

It was his first visit to Pakistan, he said, and the poverty there reminded him of China in the 1980s and '90s. When he first met Kanwal, he said, he liked her. But he said he was upfront with her that while he had converted to Islam on paper, he was not a true believer.

"I told her I wasn't a Muslim," Zhang said in an interview. He added that Kanwal had taught him the first principle of the Muslim faith.

Kanwal later stood by her insistence that she did not know Zhang was not Muslim and denied she had taught him the first principle.

Previously a logistics warehouse worker in southern China, Zhang said he now earned about $US2,900 a month farming ducks, far more than the $US180 or so that the average Chinese farmer made per month in 2018, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Zhang's income could not be independently verified. But on a recent visit to the Zhang family home, a New York Times reporter found a newly built housing compound with multiple bedrooms and shiny tile floors.

Outside the family home, Zhang's mother, who is in her 60s, recalled being puzzled by Kanwal's reactions.

"She is religious, so when she came here I went out of my way not to give her any pork," she said. "I stir-fried chicken and made egg omelets for her. But no matter what I served her, she just refused to eat."

Kanwal said the family locked her in a room for two days, trying to pressure her to stay. (Zhang denied the accusation.) She managed to email the Pakistani Embassy, whose staff connected her through to the Chinese police, who took her away and made arrangements with the embassy for her return to Pakistan.

Her stay in China lasted eight days. She said it was "horrible and beyond words".

"I prayed daily for hours, asking God to take me safely back to my country, to my people," Kanwal said. This month, she filed for divorce at a family court in Gujranwala, saying in her application that Zhang forced her into "immoral activities" and that she "would prefer to die instead of living with him".

After news outlets in Pakistan reported the raids and the trafficking charges, the Chinese Embassy there said it supported the government's efforts to combat crime. But it denied that Pakistani wives in China had been forced into prostitution or that their organs had been harvested, allegations in some Pakistani news reports that investigators said had not been substantiated.

Around the same time that Kanwal returned to Pakistan, the local marriage agency that many local men in the Dongzhang area had consulted for help in finding Pakistani wives was shuttered. But according to Zhang and other villagers in Dongzhang, there are still a number of Pakistani women in the area. Two Pakistani wives in a neighbouring village are said to be pregnant.

"There are no girls here," said Zhang's mother, when asked why so many local men had gone to Pakistan to find wives. "We weren't allowed to have more children, so everyone wanted boys."

The New York Times

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei struck a defiant tone in the face of US sanctions that threaten his company's very survival.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, the billionaire founder of China's largest technology company conceded that Trump administration export curbs will cut into a two-year lead Huawei had painstakingly built over rivals like Ericsson and Nokia. But the company will either ramp up its own chip supply or find alternatives to keep its edge in smartphones and 5G.

The US on May 17 blacklisted Huawei – which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage – and cut it off from the US software and components it needs to make its products. The ban hamstrings the world's largest provider of networking gear and No.2 smartphone vendor, just as it was preparing to vault to the forefront of global technology.

The ban is rocking chipmakers from America to Europe as the global supply chain comes under threat. It could also disrupt the rollout of 5G wireless globally, undermining a standard that's touted as the foundation of everything from autonomous cars to robot surgery.

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Ren maintained Huawei had the capability to devise its own solutions – given time. It's been designing its own chips for years, which it now uses in many of its own smartphones. It's even developing its own operating software to run phones and servers. However, the CEO deflected questions about how quickly Huawei can ramp up those internal replacement endeavours. Failure could dent the fast-growing consumer business and even kill emergent efforts such as cloud servers.

"That depends on how fast our repairmen are able to fix the plane," said Ren, who appeared at ease in a white jacket over a pink shirt, making light of questions about his company's plight. "No matter what materials they use, be it metal, cloth or paper, the aim is to keep the plane in the sky."

Ren has gone from recluse to media maven in the span of months as he fights to save the $US100 billion ($144 billion) company he founded. The 74-year-old billionaire emerged from virtual seclusion after the arrest of eldest daughter and Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou as part of a broader probe of Huawei. He's since become a central figure in a US-Chinese conflict that's potentially the most important episode to shape world affairs since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As Ren said in January, when the world's biggest economies battle for dominion, nothing in their way will survive. His company is a "sesame seed" between twin great powers, he said.

"This may bring one of China's national champions to its knees,'' said Chris Lane, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

"If China shut down all the Apple plants, the US would get very upset. This is a similar kind of move."

Ren has had much to deal with of late. His company finds itself increasingly under fire, besieged by a US effort to get key allies to ban its equipment. The US assault helped crystallise fears about Huawei's growing clout in areas from wireless infrastructure and semiconductors to consumer gadgets.

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Then came the blacklist. Huawei appears to have anticipated this possibility since at least mid-2018, when similar sanctions threatened to sink rival ZTE. Huawei's said to have stockpiled enough chips and other vital components to keep its business running at least three months.

"We have made some really good chips," said Ren, a legendary figure in his home country thanks to the way he built Huawei from scratch into a global powerhouse.

"Being able to grow in the toughest battle environment, that just reflects how great we are."

Last week, Trump said Huawei could become part of a US-Chinese trade deal, stirring speculation it was a bargaining chip in sensitive negotiations. But Ren said he wasn't a politician. "It's a big joke," he scoffed. "How are we related to China-US trade?"

If Trump calls, "I will ignore him, then to whom can he negotiate with? If he calls me, I may not answer. But he doesn't have my number."

In fact, Ren pulled no punches in going after a man he labelled "a great president" just months prior. "I see his tweets and think it's laughable because they're self-contradictory," he quipped. "How did he become a master of the art of the deal?"

Beijing itself isn't without options. Some speculate China might retaliate against the ban of Huawei – which may widen to include some of its most promising AI firms – by in turn barring America's largest corporations from its own markets. Apple could relinquish nearly a third of its profit if China banned its products, Goldman Sachs analysts estimate.

Ren said he would object to any such move against his American rival.

"That will not happen, first of all. And second of all, if that happens, I'll be the first to protest," Ren said in the interview. "Apple is my teacher, it's in the lead. As a student, why go against my teacher? Never."

At the heart of Trump's campaign is suspicion that Huawei aids Beijing in espionage while spearheading China's ambitions to become a technology superpower. It's been accused for years of stealing intellectual property in lawsuits filed by American companies from Cisco and Motorola to T-Mobile. Critics say such theft helped Huawei vault into the upper echelons of technology – but Ren laughed off that premise.

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"I stole the American technologies from tomorrow. The US doesn't even have those technologies," he said. "We are ahead of the US If we were behind, there would be no need for Trump to strenuously attack us."

Ren's easy demeanour belies the way he's consistently shunned attention. The army engineer-turned-entrepreneur has this year turned in a command performance in the public spotlight, particularly for someone who's rarely spoken to foreign media since he created Huawei. The re-emergence of the reclusive CEO – who before January last spoke with foreign media in 2015 – underscores the depth of the attacks on Huawei, the largest symbol of China's growing technological might. Ren again waved off speculation his company is in any way beholden to the Communist Party, though he's declared his loyalty ultimately lies with the country's stocksruling body.

US lawmakers aren't convinced. That's why the US Commerce Department cut off the flow of American technology – from chips to software and everything in-between.

An iconic figure in Chinese business circles, the billionaire remains a uniquely placed voice in a conflict that will help define the global landscape. Ren, who says he survived the chaos of the Cultural Revolution thanks in part to his much sought-after expertise in high-precision tools, remains a big believer that Huawei's technology will win the day.

His company today generates more sales than internet giants Alibaba and Tencent combined. In 2018, Huawei overtook Apple in smartphone sales, a triumph that burnished his tech credentials

His quotes adorn the walls of the food court at Huawei's sprawling campus on the outskirts of the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, and employees still speak of him in reverent tones. The company's 2018 report shows he has a 1.14 per cent stake, giving him a net worth of $US2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ren, who survived Mao Zedong's great famine to found Huawei in 1987 with 21,000 yuan, said Huawei will do whatever it takes to survive. It will ignore the noise while doing its business the best it can. Meanwhile, the pressure is bound to take a toll. At one point during the interview, Ren's unflappable demeanor cracked – if only for a minute.

"The US has never bought products from us," he said, bristling. "Even if the US wants to buy our products in the future, I may not sell to them. There's no need for a negotiation."

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Cody Walker remembers jamming into the family Tarago with his family and making the 230km trip across the Queensland border to watch State of Origin at Lang Park.

"I used to go as a kid and sit on the hill, and that was the era when Bradley Clyde and Brad Fittler and all those guys were playing,'' Walker said.

"We'd get into the Tarago, the 'silver bullet', with Mum, Dad and my three older brothers. Sometimes Mum wouldn't go and it would be just us boys. It was a great time of year. We'd stay at one of our uncles' places in Brisbane and drive back the next day.''

Walker lived in Casino, in the state's far north, and always bled blue.

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Even when he represented the Queensland Residents in 2013 at ANZ Stadium in an Origin curtain-raiser, Walker quipped ''I wore blue underneath.''

Walker was one of the happiest and in-demand Blues players as the team gathered under sunny skies at North Bondi on Monday.

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The night before the 29-year-old told his new teammates about the long journey it had been to make it to the NRL and now State of Origin. Nathan Cleary, his new roommate, loved hearing the stories.

The pair who have been entrusted with guiding NSW around the field on June 5 only met for the first time on Sunday night.

Walker, who did not make his first-grade debut until he was 26, said that when Fittler called to tell him he'd made the team, the conversation lasted all of 30 seconds.

"He asked me if I was ready, how the body was and then said, 'I'll see you tonight','' Walker said.

"That was it. I could understand it because he had so many calls to make, and he was working with Nine. In that moment I wanted to speak to him for half an hour, just chat because I was so excited. This means the world to me.''

Walker is the poster boy for persistence, refusing to give up before finally achieving his childhood dream.

He knows his late mother Linda, who died of a heart attack last year, will be with him every step of the way at Suncorp Stadium next Wednesday. He has 'Mum', along with the names of his partner and two boys scribbled on his wrist every game.

"She would have been beaming,'' Walker said.

"I do feel she'll be watching over me somewhere. I want to keep making her proud. Obviously it's been a hard time in my life, it's still very raw and it feels like it happened yesterday.''

Cleary has a new respect for Walker after he spoke about his back story. The 21-year-old said he had only shaken hands with the South Sydney No.6 after a few NRL games.

The Panthers halfback admitted he often thought he would be overlooked for the Blues, but was relieved when Fittler phoned to ask 'are you ready?' on Sunday morning.

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As for leading the Blues, especially with Walker being a newcomer to the big stage and experienced Penrith teammate James Maloney not being in the side to assist, Cleary told the Herald: "I definitely think I can. I will have to because I'm the halfback of the team.

"I'll have to do my job and do whatever I can for the team. Whatever Freddy wants me to do I'll do it.

"Cody has been in undeniable form. It's unfortunate for Jimmy [Maloney], but I'm sure he'll bounce back and will be in for a blinder [for Penrith] on Thursday.

"I've got that butterflies feeling again and I'm happy to be back in camp. Putting on the Blues jersey again for photos, it's an honour.''

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If formlines are gold, and punters have one eye on the next outing, three runners fit the bill at today’s Newcastle meeting.

Promising local three-year-old Time Raid steps out in a good-quality BM70 over 1400m to close the seven-race card. The gelded son of Time Thief out of a mare by 1987 Golden Slipper winner Marauding has won twice and been placed three times in just seven starts, but his last run, over 1600m at Warwick Farm two weeks ago, had form bells ringing. He finished just two lengths behind high-class Fun Fact which went to Eagle Farm and ran them off their legs in the group 3 Grand Prix over 2200m.

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Emerging four-year-old This Is So lines up for his second start in race four, a maiden over 1300m.
A gelded son of dual Cox Plate winner So You Think out of a Dehere mare, This Is So finished strongly on debut at Kembla under a big weight behind filly Invinciano, which then backed up to score in the Belle Of The South at Nowra on Sunday. Given that formline, and a pedigree that suggests he will eat up extra ground, This Is So looks primed today.

Completing the form-boosted triple treat, smart Randwick two-year-old Enforcement returns off two dominant trial wins in race five, a maiden over 900m.

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In fact, so impressive was his latest trial win at Hawkesbury over 1000m under a hold, that he left highly touted unraced colt Deadly Impact in his wake.

Few observers will need reminding Enforcement jumped a $4.80 favourite in December on debut when he finished down the track behind high-class sprinting pair Accession and Strasbourg, which ran the quinella in Saturday’s group 2 Sires’ Produce at Eagle Farm, the latter charging home to land one of the best wins of the day.

Supplied by Racing NSW