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As data centres appear in suburbs across Australia, tech companies and governments have been touting the economic benefits of the boom.  But for those who live near new and planned centres, the sell hasn’t worked. And now, the community backlash is starting to have big results.  Today, ABC business reporter Daniel Ziffer on the fragility of the AI data centre boom.    If...

This wasn’t the story global political analysts had been expecting to tell this week: In Brazil and Serbia, the youth are celebrating. Their hope for a democratic future has been restored after two shock election wins for the left that young voters helped deliver. But as the polling booths close today in what’s been described as one of Israel’s most consequential elections, it&rs...

She was the first person ever to become an astronaut wearing the Australian flag – and now Australian of the year Katherine Bennell-Pegg could finally be taking that flag into space. The federal government has sent an offer to the European Space Agency to send Bennell-Pegg on a 2028 space mission. If accepted, it will be the first time an astronaut has travelled to space under the Australian...

When John Howard introduced the GST in the year 2000, Australians were largely unimpressed. More than 25 years later, some experts – including a former treasurer – say it’s time for an update. A new report from the independent think tank the Grattan Institute proposes broadening the Goods and Services Tax and raising its rate to 15 per cent – to avoid what it says is a loom...

Once upon a time, Australians were told Pine Gap was a space research facility. Today, we know it's one of America's most important overseas intelligence bases – although much of what happens there remains secret. Now, Pine Gap is facing renewed scrutiny as defence experts say intelligence gathered at the base is likely being used to support US strikes on Iran, and an Alice Springs court rec...

It’s been a week of shock and grief.  The attack on Helen Haines has left her family and the community she represents confronting a trauma that has reverberated across the country and whose consequences will endure long after the headlines have moved on.  In Canberra, there have been calls for restraint, for care with words and for an end to the cruelty that has become so familiar...

In an Ebola treatment centre in eastern Congo, young children are being cared for by people in protective suits – isolated from the love and comfort of their families, who can only watch on from a window.  For paediatrician Rupa Narra, it was unlike anything she’d experienced in 16 years working in global health. Some of her patients were too young to understand why their parents...

You can see it in the drawn faces of the politicians lining up to speak about Helen Haines this week – Canberra has been shaken to its core. ASIO and the Australian Federal Police have been liaising with parliamentarians – some of whom say they no longer feel safe after the alleged attack, which left the beloved Victorian independent fighting for her life. But some of the same politici...

In France, thousands of arrests have been made and partial curfews imposed across the country, after a weekend of protests that spiralled into violence and looting.   The protest movement, which began four weeks ago with students demanding better conditions at high schools, culminated in half a million people protesting the rising cost of living on the weekend.   In some areas,...

Yesterday afternoon Independent MP Helen Haines was returning to her electorate office in the regional Victorian town of Wangaratta, when she was struck by a white Toyota LandCruiser.  Witnesses described seeing the car make a u-turn, and then ram Haines against a vehicle, before reversing and hitting her a second time. A local barbershop owner ran to the driver’s side of the vehicle, r...

The Greens are in crisis mode after one of their senators was accused of inappropriate conduct towards women.  On Monday the party held an emergency meeting after an explosive statement from Jordon Steele-John, denying the allegations and accusing the new party leader of lying. An internal Greens investigation is underway.  But what could be more politically damaging than the claims agai...

On February 9, thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town Hall to protest the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog. They wanted to march to state parliament, but police were blocking their way. The scenes that followed were shocking: 10 officers and dozens of protesters – some in their 70s and 80s – were injured in the violent clashes that unfolded. Now, after hundreds of complaint...

For decades, thousands of South Korean children were adopted into families overseas, including here in Australia. Many grew up believing they were orphans, only to discover years later that their identities had been falsified, their biological families were still alive and, in some cases, they were victims of human trafficking. An investigation in South Korea last year exposed widespread fraud and...

In politics, there’s nothing quite like a book launch to remind everyone you’re here if they need.  Josh Frydenberg is back, with a new book, some pointed criticism of his party, and perhaps an eye on a return to Canberra. Meanwhile, Angus Taylor is steering the Liberals firmly to the right, although even that hasn’t spared him a heckling from the conservative faithful. For...

After a decade of fighting and billions spent on American weapons, Saudi Arabia still hasn’t defeated the Houthis.   Instead, the Iranian-backed armed movement from Yemen, one of the Middle East’s poorest countries, is breaching Saudi defences with cheap drones and missiles, striking airports and oil infrastructure.  This week, an attack on the passenger terminal at Riya...

For generations, Australians could reasonably expect that their lives would be more prosperous than their parents.  But over recent years, that bargain has started to break down.  Productivity growth has barely moved for a decade. We’re working more hours, without producing much more for each hour we work, and that stagnation is showing up in incomes, living standards and rising in...

In 2009, US Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers and civilians at the Fort Hood military base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 32. He was sentenced to death in 2013 for the attack, which he described as an act of jihad. Now the Trump administration has scheduled his execution by firing squad for December 3. And Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says he wants the public...

The Coalition is saying that soon, you won’t be able to criticise the Prime Minister on the internet. It’s part of its campaign against Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care – which the opposition has branded the “Albo-rithm”, arguing it would give the government the power to decide what Australians can see and say online. So what’s actually in the governm...

Kath Madgwick has been to hell and back. One of the most recognisable faces of the Royal Commission into Robodebt, her only son Jarrad took his own life after being told he owed Services Australia nearly two thousand dollars.  Kath has been fighting ever since. The royal commission report dedicated more than a page to her story. But now, Kath says she’s experiencing injustice of another...

Last week, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of service members at a base in Virginia to lay out his vision for the American military. Alongside sweeping changes to the way it fights and trains, Hegseth announced a new Office of Religious Affairs – reporting directly to him – aimed at putting what he calls “spiritual health” on the same level as physical h...

The Coalition is under pressure from One Nation, and its response is becoming increasingly clear. Angus Taylor is pushing a much harder line on immigration, borrowing language that echoes populist movements overseas.  At the same time, One Nation is escalating its own rhetoric as it tries to capitalise on the anger and discontent spreading across the electorate. It’s part of a broader f...

The Greens’ official think-tank has a new proposition — a national chain of 624 publicly owned supermarkets. To make that a reality would cost more than $25 billion, and involve the forced sale of 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.  But the Institute, which took its inspiration from New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, says it would cut grocery bills by 22 per cent.  Today, for...

Big events have always had the power to shape elections: from John Howard and the Tampa affair, to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.  And it doesn’t get much bigger than a foiled attempt to bring down a plane mid-flight. One week on from the Flydubai incident, details are continuing to filter out about the co-pilot accused of stabbing his colleague in an effort to crash the T...

Angus Taylor has promised “the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country” – vowing to cut net overseas migration to one hundred thousand for two years if he wins office, slashing Australia’s temporary migration intake by 650 thousand over four years. Temporary graduate visas would be scrapped and new international students capped at 240 thousand. Australia&r...

The United States is once again tightening its grip on Cuba.  New travel and economic restrictions are adding to a brutal oil blockade that has already pushed the country deeper into crisis, leaving Cuba increasingly isolated both politically and economically.  But behind the decades of hostility between Washington and Havana, there’s a human cost that can be easy to lose sight of....