Born with a genetic disorder that nearly killed her, Mikaela Norris spent much of her childhood in hospital.

During every stay for treatment connected to her spinal muscular atrophy type 2, she and her older sister would visit the Starlight Room, where volunteers provided games, crafts and a friendly face.

“It made hospital a lot more friendly for me and my family,” Ms Norris told AAP.

“As a kid you’re like, ‘why am I here and getting poked with needles and I can’t get out of bed? That’s not really fair’

“But then the Starlight captains are there to paint your face and play games with you and you’re like, ‘oh, it’s not too bad, I guess’.”

Now 23, she still visits the Starlight Room at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, but as a volunteer to “pay it forward”.

Ms Norris, who works four hours every Wednesday, says she had been worried about her ability to contribute due to her physical limitations.

But having been the child patient in the room, she offers empathy other volunteers can’t.

“I get quite insecure about my disability and how much I can actually help … (but) I do see a lot of myself in a couple of the kids that I’m able to meet,” she said.

“I want to make their hospital experience a little bit more tolerable, it really does make a difference.”

The way people volunteer has changed in recent years, according to Volunteering Australia chief executive Mark Pearce.

Instead of making a formal commitment to certain days and times, there was an emerging trend of people doing more ad-hoc volunteering, he said.

“It might be you and I get together and say, ‘you know, at that creek down the road, there’s got a lot of rubbish in it, let’s just go clean it up’,” Mr Pearce said.

The organisation is using National Volunteer Week, which begins on Monday, to urge more people to donate their time.

People like Ms Norris – those who had been positively impacted by volunteering – were often those most likely to want to give back, Mr Pearce said.

But many others volunteered just to demonstrate their commitment to their community, he said.

Around six million people volunteer through organisations across the nation and millions more volunteer informally in their local communities, according to the organisation’s figures.

It was cruelly ironic that volunteers were most needed at times of stress – such as during the current cost-of-living crisis or following natural disasters – but those same events could prompt a decline in numbers, Mr Pearce acknowledged.

“But it’s important to understand with volunteering that it goes both ways,” he added.

“Communities benefit from volunteers as volunteers benefit from volunteering itself.”

Ms Norris concurs.

“Seeing families and kids laughing and smiling, knowing that they probably had a rough week or couple of days … that’s all that matters.”

Uncertainty surrounds the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate-setting board as it meets for the first time since Donald Trump blew up the global free trade establishment.

But the two-day meeting, which begins on Monday, comes at a fortuitous time, with the board able to rely upon some known knowns.

Two influential pieces of data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week painted a clearer picture of a labour market still going strong. 

Meanwhile, the wait since “Liberation Day” on April 2 has allowed the board to sit back and see how the US president’s tariff plans have played out.

Mr Trump’s backdown on Chinese tariffs – dropping them to 30 per cent from 145 per cent – offers “at least some reassurance that the US is willing to make trade deals with its counterparts”, said AMP economist Diana Mousina.

But then there are the known unknowns.

Despite the easing in trade tensions, the global economy is still in for a significant hit.

But the data is yet to show exactly how substantial this will be.

Australian exports to the US will still face tariffs of at least 10 per cent, but the bigger impact on the domestic economy will be the flow-on effects from China.

JP Morgan economists predict the extent of the drag on Chinese economic growth to be 1.5 percentage points in 2025.

Chinese economic output spiked at the start of the year as US importers stockpiled inventory but activity data released on Monday could show a slowdown as front-loading unwinds, said JP Morgan’s Bruce Kasman, Joseph Lupton, Nora Szentivanyi and Malcolm Barr.

The known unknown of the negative impact on Australia’s economy weighs in favour of the Reserve Bank easing back the restrictiveness of interest rates, as do the unknown unknowns.

Even as Mr Trump’s apparent willingness to make deals has reassured markets, the uncertainty that surrounds his erratic decision-making will still drag on the economy.

There is always the risk that he could do something unexpected that drives markets back into turmoil.

Speaking shortly after the last board meeting in April, RBA governor Michele Bullock said a key focus of the bank was how much uncertainty was causing households and businesses to put off spending decisions.

The rates market has nearly fully priced in a 25 basis point cut, but until 2.30pm on Tuesday, the board’s decision will remain an unknown known to all but themselves.

A clear majority of economists believe the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut interest rates at its next meeting, but developments abroad mean it’s no longer a sure thing.

US President Donald Trump recently slashed tariffs on China to 35 per cent from a whopping 145 per cent, prompting Beijing to lower its own tariff wall and triggering a rebound in values for riskier assets such as shares.

Following strong labour market data released on Thursday, the market now predicts three rate cuts by year’s end, down from four priced in at the start of the week.

But traders are still nearly fully priced in for a 25 basis point cut to the cash rate, which sits at 4.1 per cent, on Tuesday.

Almost nine in 10 economists agreed in a survey by comparison website Finder.

Oxford Economics Australia’s Sean Langcake is among the vast majority of the 41 economists surveyed who predict a cash rate reduction.

Despite better news on the tariff front, the economy would still be negatively impacted by the “uncertainty shock”, he said.

“With upside inflation risks dissipating, the RBA can afford to lend the economy some more support,” Mr Langcake added.

Economists at all four big banks also expect a cut, with NAB still holding onto its prediction of a turbocharged 50 basis point cut.

Nomura analysts Andrew Ticehurst and David Seif said the case for an “aggressive” 50-point cut was relatively weak, given the detente in the Sino-American trade war.

“We expect the RBA to deliver a 25 basis point rate cut, reflecting both further welcome progress in returning core inflation back towards target and the continuing highly uncertain global backdrop,” the pair said.

The central bank will also update its quarterly economic predictions on Tuesday in an otherwise quiet week on the data front.

The Victorian government will unveil its budget on the same day, with ratings agency S&P Global warning the nation’s most indebted state to rein in spending or risk seeing its AA credit rating downgraded further.

Meanwhile, US markets were buoyed by the tariff reprieve, rising for their fifth day in a row by the end of the week.

Australian shares reached a three-month high on Friday after eight straight sessions of gains.

The fate of jailed Australian Oscar Jenkins is set to be discussed in face-to-face talks between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Rome.

Mr Jenkins faces 13 years in a Russian prison after a court found him guilty of taking part in an armed conflict as a mercenary, which denies him the protections provided to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

The Australian government insists he was fighting as a member of the Ukrainian defence forces and should be entitled to humane treatment as a prisoner of war.

“This is an appalling decision from Russia, and another outrage in a long line of outrages when it comes to matters involving Ukraine,” federal frontbencher Murray Watt told Sky News on Sunday morning.

“We consider this to be a sham trial, and we don’t accept that Mr Jenkins should be treated this way.”

Mr Watt said he was sure Mr Albanese would bring up Mr Jenkins’ treatment and prospects for release with Mr Zelenskiy.

The pair are expected to meet on Sunday, Vatican time, on the sidelines of the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in the Holy See.

On Saturday, Mr Albanese told journalists he was “outraged” by Mr Jenkins’ incarceration and that Russia was continuing to abrogate its obligations to international law.

Mr Zelenskiy held direct talks with Russian officials for the first time on Friday as the two sides make abortive efforts to work towards a ceasefire deal.

Mr Jenkins was captured in occupied eastern Ukraine and taken into Russian custody last December.

He was seen in social media videos visibly bruised and shaken while being interrogated and beaten by a Russian-speaking captor.

The 33-year-old is believed to be the first Australian combatant reportedly captured by Russian forces.

All sides of politics have offered their support to Mr Jenkins, with opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson calling his treatment “shocking”.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has previously said his government added Mr Jenkins to its list of prisoners of war and would negotiate for his release in an exchange.

More than three years have passed since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

With a reputation as a savvy negotiator, Australia’s new environment minister will need all his political nous to navigate the competing interests in the politically fraught portfolio.

Reviving long-promised nature law reforms are top of Murray Watt’s to-do list, but that will not be the only challenge of the gig.

The fate of contentious resources projects also await the attention of the Queensland senator, who was picked to replace Tanya Plibersek after she was shifted to the social services ministry.

His most pressing priority will be picking up where his predecessor left off on installing a national environment watchdog and overhauling flawed federal laws at a time when more than 2000 species are listed as threatened.

Laws designed to protect “matters of national environmental significance” from development are considered too weak by some and too stringent by others.

Responding to the 2020 Samuel review that declared the legislation ineffective and outdated, the Albanese government agreed to substantial reform.

But the so-called “nature positive plan” hit a roadblock as the election neared, when a deal Ms Plibersek squared away with the cross bench for a federal environmental protection agency was scuttled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

He faced criticism for caving to West Australian mining interests but denied the move was done to appease industry.

National co-convenor of the Labor Environment Action Network, Felicity Wade, described the mining industry as “pretty recalcitrant” ahead of the election, before which the coalition was initially tipped to win back a swathe of seats.

“There was a perception that a change of government was possible and their preparedness to be a constructive reform participant evaporated,” Ms Wade told AAP.

The Labor group’s members are hopeful the party’s thumping election victory will bring industry back to the table.

“There are productivity and efficiency gains to be gained through this legislation, but not at the expense of the environment,” Ms Wade said.

Early indications suggest the mining lobby also wants the issue on the agenda.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive officer Tania Constable committed to working collaboratively to reform environmental laws to provide “faster, clearer decisions” after the ministerial reshuffle.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, consider reforms of the “broken” laws long overdue, with Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy calling for the issue to be knocked over in the first 12 months.

“There can be no more delays, caving to lobby groups and carving out industries,” she said.

The newly appointed environment minister is no stranger to competing priorities and has delivered on thorny issues before, such as ending live sheep exports.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil described Senator Watt as a “frank, fair and skilled negotiator who got things done”, based on her dealings with him as workplace relations minister.

“He makes sure he is on top of the detail, listens to varied perspectives and keeps his eye on the objectives,” she said.

Senator Watt has already indicated that legislating a federal environment watchdog will be one of the top priorities for the recently returned government, planning a trip to Western Australia in the coming week to meet with the premier and mining figures.

He told The Guardian in a post-appointment interview that he was weighing up ditching the “nature positive” title from its law reform in favour of “terms that Australians can understand and buy into”.

The support of the Greens, now under the leadership of Queensland senator Larissa Waters, will still be needed to pass any legislation in the new parliament, unless the coalition can be brought on board.

In the previous term, the minor party fought to broaden the reforms to include climate and forest protections.

But deals with the coalition also cannot be ruled out.

The new opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was the environment minister in the job when the Samuel review was commissioned.

Ms Wade said the opposition leader was “thoughtful” in her response to its findings and made an attempt at legislating national standards.

“Her party limited her ability to act, the million-dollar question is whether they have learnt and will respect the mandate of the Albanese government this time round,” she said.

The incoming Greens leader said Labor had a choice between working with the minor party to deliver laws that genuinely protected nature or siding with the coalition to continue the status quo.

“Do they want to do a proper job, or do they want to stick with (former coalition prime minister) John Howard’s laws from last century?” Senator Waters said after her appointment to the role.

Australian National University honorary associate professor and Biodiversity Council member Peter Burnett was hopeful Labor remained committed to its environmental protection agenda.

“Now we wait to see if the government announces any change of direction,” he said.

Legally enforceable environmental standards were foundational to the reforms and would prevent subjective ministerial decision-making, Assoc Prof Burnett added.

Basing decisions on standards – such as no land clearing in critical habitat for threatened species – and an independent EPA to enforce the rules would temper the potential for political arm-twisting.

He was critical of the way consultation was handled early in Labor’s first term, taking too long and ultimately leaving the government short on time to deliver its legislation.

“Now it’s the task of the new minister to try and get a major reform through in what is a relatively tight timeframe of a parliament,” Assoc Prof Burnett said.

An Australian man jailed for 13 years in a maximum-security Russian prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces was given a sham trial, the Australian government says. 

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was found guilty by a court of taking part in an armed conflict as a mercenary, said a statement on Friday from prosecutors in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia.

The court ruled he took part in combat operations against Russian troops between March and December 2024.

Mr Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was serving with Ukraine’s military when he was captured by Russian forces.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government was appalled at what she described as a “sham trial”.

“As a full serving member of the regular Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war,” said a statement released on Saturday.

Senator Wong urged Russian authorities to give Mr Jenkins the protections afforded to him as a prisoner of war, including treating him humanely in accordance with international humanitarian law.

“We are working with Ukraine and other partners, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to advocate for his welfare and release,” the statement continued.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has previously said his government added Mr Jenkins to its list of PoWs and would negotiate for his release in an exchange.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also said Australia has made representations to Ukraine, including a one-on-one discussion he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Saturday said she stood ready to support the Jenkins family “who are no doubt going through a really difficult and challenging time”.

“We stand ready to provide whatever support is required to both the family and the federal government as they work through what is a really difficult and challenging set of circumstances,” she said in a statement.

More than three years have passed since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Moody’s has downgraded its credit rating of the United States by a notch to “Aa1” from “Aaa”, citing rising debt and interest “that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns”.

The rating agency had been the last among major ratings agencies to keep a top, triple-A rating for US sovereign debt, though it had lowered its outlook in late 2023 due to wider fiscal deficit and higher interest payments.

“Successive US administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” Moody’s said on Friday, as it changed its outlook on the US to “stable” from “negative”.

Since his return to the White House on January 20, President Donald Trump has pledged to balance the US budget while his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has repeatedly said the current administration aims to lower US government funding costs.

The administration’s mix of revenue-generating tariffs and spending cuts through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have highlighted a keen awareness of the risks posed by mounting government debt, which, if unchecked, could trigger a bond market rout and hinder the administration’s ability to pursue its agenda.

The downgrade comes as Trump’s sweeping tax bill failed to clear a key procedural hurdle on Friday, as hardline Republicans demanding deeper spending cuts blocked the measure in a rare political setback for the Republican president in Congress.

“We do not believe that material multi-year reductions in mandatory spending and deficits will result from current fiscal proposals under consideration,” Moody’s said, while forecasting federal debt burden to rise to about 134 per cent of GDP by 2035, compared with 98 per cent in 2024.

The cut follows a downgrade by rival Fitch, which in August 2023 also cut the US sovereign rating by one notch, citing expected fiscal deterioration and repeated down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to pay its bills.

US President Donald Trump says that over the next two to three weeks US officials will be sending letters to countries outlining “what they will be paying to do business in the United States”.

Trump, speaking in the capital of the United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi on the last stage of a four-day tour of Gulf countries, did not clarify further what that meant.

China and the United States announced a truce in their trade war on Monday after talks in Geneva, which Trump mentioned in his Abu Dhabi remarks along with a separate trade deal with the United Kingdom.

“At a certain point over the next two to three weeks I think (US Treasury Secretary) Scott (Bessent) and (US Commerce Secretary) Howard (Lutnick) will be sending letters out … telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States.”

He said countries could appeal it and that US officials would not be able to meet with all the “150 countries that want to make a deal”.

The US also agreed a limited bilateral trade agreement with the UK last week, which leaves in place Trump’s 10 per cent tariffs on UK exports while cutting higher tariffs on steel and cars.

Abu Dhabi was Trump’s last stop on a Gulf tour focused on business deals worth hundred of billions of dollars that could boost the US economy and create jobs.

Brazil, the world’s largest chicken exporter, has confirmed its first outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm, triggering a country-wide trade ban from China and state-wide restrictions for other major consumers.

The outbreak in southern Brazil was identified at a farm supplying Vibra Foods, a Brazilian operation backed by Tyson Foods, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Vibra and Tyson did not immediately respond to questions. 

Vibra has 15 processing plants in Brazil and exports to more than 60 countries, according to its website.

Brazil exported $US10 billion ($A16 billion) of chicken meat in 2024, accounting for about 35 per cent of global trade. 

Much of that came from meat processors BRF and JBS, which ship to 150 countries.

China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the main destinations for Brazil’s chicken exports.

Brazil’s Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Friday China had banned poultry imports from the country for 60 days. 

Under agreements with Japan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, he said a trade ban would only restrict shipments from the affected state and, eventually, just the municipality in question.

The outbreak occurred in the city of Montenegro in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, the farm ministry said. 

The state accounts for 15 per cent of Brazilian poultry production and exports, pork and poultry group ABPA said in July 2024.

BRF has five processing plants operating in the state. 

JBS has also invested in local chicken processing plants under its Seara brand.

State officials said the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu is already responsible for the death of 17,000 farm chickens, either directly from the disease or due to cautionary culling.

Veterinary officials are isolating the area of the outbreak in Montenegro and hunting for more cases in an initial 10km radius, the state agricultural secretariat said.

Favaro, the farm minister, said Brazil was working to contain the outbreak and negotiate a loosening of trade restrictions faster than the two months agreed in protocols.

“If we manage to eliminate the outbreak, we think it’s possible to re-establish a normal trade flow before the 60 days are up, including with China,” Favaro said in an interview aired on CNN Brasil.

Chicken products shipped by Thursday will not be affected by trade restrictions, he added.

The ministry said in a statement that it was officially notifying the World Organisation for Animal Health.

Bird flu has swept through the US poultry industry since 2022, killing about 170 million chickens, turkeys and other birds, severely affecting production of meat and eggs.

Bird flu has also infected nearly 70 people in the US, with one death, since 2024. 

Most of those infections have been among farm workers exposed to infected poultry or cows.

The further spread of the disease raises the risk that bird flu could become more transmissible to humans.

By contrast, Argentina was able to isolate a February 2023 outbreak and start resuming exports slowly the next month.

“All necessary measures to control the situation were quickly adopted, and the situation is under control and being monitored by government agencies,” Brazil’s poultry industry group ABPA said in a statement.

JBS referred questions about the outbreak to ABPA.

BRF CEO Miguel Gularte told analysts on an earnings call that he was confident Brazilian health protocols were robust and the situation would be quickly overcome.

Brazil, which exported more than five million metric tonnes of chicken products last year, first confirmed outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian flu among wild birds in May 2023 in at least seven states.

The disease is not transmitted through the consumption of poultry meat or eggs, the Agriculture Ministry said.

“The Brazilian and world population can rest assured about the safety of inspected products, and there are no restrictions on their consumption,” the ministry said.

Disgraced war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith faces an uphill battle to take his defamation fight to the High Court, but prominent legal sources believe he has a chance.

The Victoria Cross recipient sued Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters over their reports in 2018 which claimed he had committed war crimes.

He suffered a bruising loss in 2023 when Justice Anthony Besanko found the claims the former soldier was responsible for the murder of four unarmed civilians were substantially true.

The former SAS corporal launched an appeal against the findings in 2024, which was dismissed by the full Federal Court on Friday after more than a year of consideration. 

Within an hour of the decision being handed down, Roberts-Smith indicated he would immediately seek to challenge the decision in the High Court.

“I continue to maintain my innocence and deny these egregious, spiteful allegations,” he said in a statement. 

“Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant, and I believe one day soon the truth will prevail.”

The first hurdle for the former special forces soldier will be obtaining special leave to appeal to the High Court, defamation barrister Roger Rasmussen told AAP. 

“Special leave is always extremely difficult (to obtain) in any case … because it’s not an appeal as such,” he said, adding that he has no knowledge of the case. 

“You’ve got to show some special reason for why the High Court should be entertaining your application.”

The reasons may be the interest of justice or a legal point of law, which in Roberts-Smith’s case would relate to the standard of proof. 

A silk with experience appearing before the High Court told AAP there was nearly no chance Roberts-Smith could succeed in arguing his appeal was in the interest of justice, because four judges had reached the same conclusion.

He said the application for special leave would require creativity and the soldier’s legal team would need to “change tack”. 

“It’s not an impossible task,” he concluded.

Another senior legal figure suggested Roberts-Smith’s team might push for an appeal based on Justice Nye Perram’s refusal to admit evidence from Roberts-Smith’s ex-lover on an interlocutory application.

Justice Perram is due to hand down the reasons for his decision in due course. 

“There was a case last week where the High Court overturned a decision because of similar misconduct,” the legal figure said. 

She said she was left “uneasy” with the outcome because a court had ruled it was satisfied war crimes occurred when Roberts-Smith has not been charged by a prosecuting authority.

Mr Rasmussen said the attention given to the case could alone be sufficient to obtain special leave to appeal.

“The High Court doesn’t usually worry too much about that, but they might consider it’s of sufficient importance … because they are pretty serious allegations,” he noted.

If Roberts-Smith obtains special leave, Mr Rasmussen said it could take months for the High Court to vet the application and decide whether to extend an invitation to appeal.

He was confident the former SAS corporal’s lawyers were already preparing their submissions.

The appeal decision handed down by Justices Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett is yet to be published. 

Lifeline 13 11 14

Open Arms 1800 011 046