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Jun 30, 2026 - World

Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastChalmers defends house price forecastsThe government has been facing some heat over the cooling house market around Australia with falling auction clearance rates, and forecasts that house prices in Sydney and Melbourne could fall more than $100,000.Auction clearance rates in Brisbane came up on the weekend, if you compare the preliminary numbers from the week before. They also came up in Adelaide. They came up nationally in aggregate, as I understand it. But in Sydney and Melbourne, we saw some softness there, that actually predated the budget announcements.It doesn’t make a lot of sense to replace one big distortion that Howard and Costello introduced when they made that big policy mistake in 1999 and ruined the housing market for too many people, especially young people; [it] doesn’t make sense to replace that big distortion with another big distortion.And so we’re applying this CGT discount – there’s still a discount, just calculated differently to reflect real gains – we’re applying it fairly and neutrally across the board so that we don’t introduce another big distortion and repeat the mistakes.Some people think that we’re stuck in the past and our policies need to resonate with the Australia of today and the future. So I think it’d be a really good time for us to revisit our values.If things aren’t resonating, and if people are actually latching on to our policies and believing in that, but they’re not wanting to vote for us, then maybe we need to do something about the brand,I want us to have more cut-through on our policies. I worked for John Howard back in the day, and my patch, we were the Howard battlers, we’re the Menzies Forgotten people, and we’re Tony Tradie. So we are pretty much the heartland of Australia. And when the heartland of Australia tells you that you need to get more cut-through to get more voters on your side, then you need to listen to the people. Continue reading...

Jun 30, 2026 - World

It feels as if we are being abandoned to our fate by those in power, with further extreme heat expected next weekIn the summer of 2019, I had a “fun” idea for a piece. Paris was due to experience its hottest day in history, and I proposed travelling around the city trying out its various cooling-off strategies to see if they would help. Reader, it was not fun and they did not help.Last week, Paris experienced its worst period of catastrophic heat on record, worse than that day in 2019, and worse than in 2003, when a sustained heatwave killed nearly 15,000 people. I now live in a neighbourhood in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest département in mainland France and one of the most exposed to extreme heat, and, to add to the complications, am seven months pregnant. So how did my week go this time? Continue reading...

Jun 30, 2026 - World

Hospitality trade bodies’ data published as celebrity chefs and restaurateurs launch campaign for VAT cutNearly a quarter of UK pubs, bars and restaurants are losing money, according to new survey data that came as a group of celebrity chefs and business owners stepped up their campaign for a sector-specific VAT cut.Spearheaded by chef Tom Kerridge, leading figures in the hospitality sector are calling for VAT on the industry to be cut from 20% to 10%. Continue reading...

Jun 30, 2026 - World

LNP denies claims that recent changes to child safety practices have led to an increase in the use of office spaceFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Queensland government has rejected claims its policies have further strained an under-pressure child protection system, after revelations that vulnerable children were made to sleep on the floor of public service offices.The premier, David Crisafulli, confirmed on Monday that the approach had been used under his LNP government, but his government said it would typically be done only in the early morning, when other options weren’t available. Continue reading...

Jun 30, 2026 - World

Energy system operator says sum needed to deliver clean power targets while meeting rising demand is up by 50%The cost of rewiring Great Britain’s electricity networks through the 2030s is now 50% higher than before the Labour government came to power, and could reach almost £90bn in the next decade, according to the energy system operator.Building new high-voltage transmission lines and infrastructure to connect low-carbon energy to the grid in the 2030s was initially forecast by the energy system operator to cost £58bn. Continue reading...