Melbourne

A 32 year old Australian citizen of Afghan descent with a history of drug problems has been arrested in Melbourne, Australia after a white Suzuki SUV was driven into a crowd of downtown Christmas shoppers at around 4:40pm. Fourteen people were injured, some critically. "There was no attempt to brake, no attempt to swerve" said witness Jim Stoupas. The BBC reports one victim was a child of preschool-age with head injuries who was taken to Royal Children's hospital in serious condition. 

Early this month, we discussed whether the world’s longest running bull market – 55 years – in Australian house prices had come to an end. This was UBS’s view following the October 2017 monthly report on Australian house prices from CoreLogic suggested that measures to tighten credit standards and dissuade overseas buyers (especially Chinese in Sydney and Melbourne) have finally begun to bite. As CoreLogic’s summary table shows, Sydney prices fell in October, for the second month running, and poised to lead national prices lower.

Extradition proceedings against an Australian headmistress accused of sexually abusing students at an ultra-Orthodox girls’ school were halted on Sunday, after a judge ruled her unfit to stand trial.

“If you go down to the woods today,” the children’s song warns us, “you’re in for a big surprise”; but if you go down today to Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens—greenest of local green lungs, a veritable Central Park for Australia’s second-largest city—you’re in for an even bigger surprise. To wit, the sole John Fitzgerald Kennedy memorial in the world which appears to have escaped the attention of Arthur Schlesinger.