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Australia's economic slowdown is just beginning, economists warn, as interest rate rises and cost-of-living pressures weigh on households.The economy grew just 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Wednesday, but the figures only captured the first month of the Middle East war.

... nations failed to establish or effectively enforce comprehensive legal prohibitions against importing goods produced wholly or partly through forced labour.While a subset of countries — including Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the European Union — will see 10% tariffs imposed due to specific enforcement failures, Australia has been grouped with jurisdictions like China and India under the higher 12.5% tariff bracket...

Australian beef exports to China could be hit with a 55 per cent tariff within days. Earlier this year, Beijing announced a quota on Australian beef of 205,000 tonnes a year...

A senior police officer has praised the “impressive” efforts of an elderly man who shot an alleged intruder after he and his wife were stabbed at their rural NSW home. Police allege the 75-year-old man and 72-year-old woman, identified as Keith and Dianne Blessing, were attacked by a knife-wielding man in their home at Torrington, a small village in northern NSW, just after midnight on Thursday. Ms Blessing “collapsed with a chest wound” while her husband was slashed across his abdomen, police say. Mr Blessing called triple-0 as their alleged attacker retreated onto the home’s veranda. The alleged attacker can...

The U.S. has committed to selling Australia three in-service Virginia-class nuclear submarines while pivoting from the planned acquisition of one new and two in-service Virginias as part the multi-billion-dollar AUKUS submarine deal. Australia plans to acquire a fleet of cutting-edge, fast attack nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS, a multi-decade defence pact with Britain and the United States. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey announced the revision to the AUKUS acquisition plan during the a recent AUKUS Defense Ministers Meeting held on the sidelines of the International Institute of Strategic Studies Shangri-La...

An animal rights activist has been arrested after clashing with parents at a reptile stall where children were taking pictures with baby crocodiles. The drama erupted at the Surfers Paradise markets in Queensland on Friday evening when one angry mum confronted outspoken vegan Tash Peterson for filming her kids at the stall. "Held by the neck for children to touch, treated like objects, and then posed with as if they’re just for a photo opportunity - how disgusting is this?" Ms Peterson said in a clip posted to her Instagram account. She is then approached by a frustrated parent, who...

A now-deceased official with President Donald Trump’s National Security Council received a report suggesting that the 2017 Las Vegas shooting may not have been the work of a “lone gunman” with no discernible motive, but rather a terrorist attack perpetrated by at least two men with possible ties to ISIS and/or ANTIFA, according to National File. Testament to how cowed and pathetic American journalists are that no one got to the bottom of Las Vegas shooting— Darren J. Beattie (@DarrenJBeattie) January 3, 2021The “All Source Assessment,” entitled “Attack on the Route 91 Country Music Festival,” was prepared for Rich Higgins,...

Last week, the Department of Justice announced that former FBI director James B. Comey has been again indicted by a Federal Grand Jury, this time in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The criminal offenses charged against Comey are precise and limited; two counts of threating harm to the President. They involve his posting of images of seashells arranged as “86 47.” 86 being slang for kill and Trump being the 47th president. Kash Patel, the current FBI director, commented that Comey “disgracefully encouraged a threat on President Trump’s life and posted it on Instagram for the world to see.”...

An Australian drone show descended into chaos when technical failures caused nearly 90 drones to plummet into the waters of Darling Harbour in Sydney on Monday night. According to news reports citing drone operator SkyMagic, 89 drones landed in the water due to an “unforeseen change in the radio frequency.” “This anomaly caused a number of drones in the fleet to enact failsafe landing procedures in response to compromised positional accuracy,” SkyMagic said in a statement. The failsafe involved some of the drones forming a cluster before descending. “No vehicle escaped the safety boundary of the show parameters, and the...

A live frog was discovered in a lettuce bag purchased from a grocery store in Australia. Farmer Rhys Smoker found the frog hopping inside an unopened lettuce bag bought from Woolworths in Esperance, Australia, on Saturday, May 16, while preparing a steak and salad dinner for his housemates, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Associated Press reported.

One Nation has won a federal special election – the first time the party has won an election for a federal House of Representatives seat.

It is too early to foretell the future production from the Arckaringa Basin. There are numerous steps before oil production can start. For example, a 300-kilometre pipeline to Port Bonython, or a spur to link the Arckaringa Basin to the existing Moomba-Port Bonython pipeline, will need to be built before any oil could reach the market. Crude oil storage and export capacity at Port Bonython will also have to be increased significantly to accommodate extra crude.There is likely to be bipartisan support for shale oil production in South Australia. However the potential for carbon-intensive shale production in South Australia is...

[...] “You may still be seeing the inflationary impact of food industry costs for the next 12 to 15 months,” he said. [...] If this sounds hyperbolic, consider the importance of fertiliser. Some 40-50 per cent of the world’s food production depends on artificial nitrogen-based fertiliser, which is created by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas to make ammonia. In turn, this is combined with either nitric acid or carbon dioxide to produce ammonium nitrate, or urea. The problem is that 34 per cent of global urea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, having been produced...

Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said. Carney was speaking as the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, which opened on Monday amid high tensions in the strait of Hormuz and renewed doubts about the US commitment to Nato. “We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world, and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” he said. In...

In rural Maryland, USA, Travis Reyes savours the simple things. A cup of coffee on the deck with his wife. A walk in the nearby woods. All of it sweeter because, against all odds, somehow, he is still alive."I think most of it is stubbornness. A little too stubborn to die," Travis told 7.30.In August 2023, Travis was a 20-year-old US Marine Corporal stationed in Darwin. He was part of the crew of a tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey taking part in an Australian Defence Force-run exercise, Predators Run.On the morning of August 27, Travis's Osprey left Darwin but didn't make it...

The United Nations, in its infinite wisdom has appointed the Islamic Republic of Iran to serve as one of the 34 Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference on Monday, which is set to review the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The decision was made by a bloc of non-aligned and other states, typically composed of developing and non-nuclear countries. BREAKING: The U.N. just elected the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the Vice Presidents of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference.Bravo to the U.S., UAE, Australia, UK, France and Germany for objecting.Last time, only 🇺🇸 spoke out: https://t.co/bmhFp2gKEw https://t.co/Ije4bXbV7u...

In the end, the only 'king' who matters in Washington is Donald Trump] Local DC government workers replace the Australian flag with the Union Jack along 17th Street next to the White House on April 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. The DC government mistakenly placed both flags around the White House in preparation of King Charles visit to Washington on April 27, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Leyden/Getty Images) A Union Flag is up and an Australian flag taken down near the White House. The slip-up is a pretty good summation of how much attention America as a whole is...

The first battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility in North America is now operational in Texas. In May 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott, Tesla founder Elon Musk and other officials broke ground at what would become Tesla North America’s new lithium refinery in Robstown. By January 2026, it was fully operational. The facility is the first of its kind to ever be built in North America, The Center Square reported. The facility is part of Abbott’s goal for Texas to lead in reducing reliance on China for critical minerals and technology. Under Abbott, Texas is leading in semiconductor manufacturing and development, state-led...

An Australian entrepreneur who launched a prominent vegan chicken nugget startup has been accused of strangling his social media star girlfriend inside a luxe Manhattan hotel — where he was allegedly hiding out from claims he fleeced investors in his crypto company, The Post has learned. Ben Pasternak, 26 — whose plant-based business Simulate was once valued at $250 million — was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he assaulted his ex, influencer Evelyn Ha, on March 31 after she tried to film him on her phone inside the ritzy Baccarat Hotel on West 53rd Street. The millionaire magnate had been...

Following direct remarks from both Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a triggered Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says the U.S. will not be permitted to dictate terms of the USMCA renegotiation, now scheduled for formal talks with Mexico only beginning May 25th. According to the Canadian leadership they do not need the United States in order to maintain their economy. The unfortunate people of Canada are very close to finding out exactly what that level of arrogance delivers. USTR Jamieson Greer was just in Mexico meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the Mexican trade...