News

Hong Kong has a parliament without the language of opposition. The National Security Law forbids dissent and is stifling the idea of democracy in the territory.

Peru is in deep crisis. The week-long regime of interim president Manuel Merino has been brought crashing down in the face of mass protests by tens of thousands of angry protesters.

The giant Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership between Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the ten members of ASEAN (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) was signed online on Sunday, November 15.

The signing of the long-awaited agreement signals the region’s shared commitment to open trade and investment in the post-Covid economy, PM says.

Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election raises a perennial question about what Rupert Murdoch does when the candidate he has opposed wins.

Corporate Australia cannot ignore the link between its social licence to operate and responsible engagement, inquiry hears.

The ability to make 360-degree panoramas on mobile phones, VR scanning and drone photography are now all reasonably accessible – as evident in their use by commercial real estate platforms in Australia.

In 2019, the average daily commute time for Australian metro workers was 66 minutes. Then COVID happened.

The US has traditionally been the preferred destination for migrants. It normally gets close to half of the skilled migrants who come to OECD countries and around one third of skilled migrants globally.

Joe Biden’s election as US president presents Prime Minister Scott Morrison with the opportunity to reset Australia’s ailing relationship with China. Encouragingly, Biden has signalled his commitment to rebuilding global alliances and restoring a degree of certainty in foreign policy.

Senators and staffers went to great lengths to stop program that investigated behaviour and misconduct of parliamentarians, union claims.

Europe is dealing with its “second wave” of COVID-19. And governments seem powerless to stem the tide. Dutch political leaders find it difficult to convince their citizens to wear face masks.

More than 2,600 coral fragments are being attached to a web of 165 hexagonal, sand-coated frames to form a healthy area of new reef.

It’s unsurprising that Anthony Albanese is looking over his shoulder, because last term he was sitting on Bill Shorten’s shoulder, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Frequent communication can help remind people about unseen dangers, making them more likely to prioritise safe behaviour. Energy companies, for example, send summaries of incidents from across the sector to teams, and schedule time for staff to talk about how to prevent something similar happening.

Following the news that Pfizer’s vaccine for COVID-19 is showing signs of 90% efficacy, there’s been a lot of excitement about the end of the pandemic being in sight. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, has even suggested that life could return to normal...

The world may have expected the chaos and uncertainty of the US presidential election to end when Joe Biden was declared the winner last weekend. But these are not normal times and Donald Trump is not a conventional president.

Large consignment of meth sent from Iran was concealed beneath fake grass, which was part of the tunnel set-up.

Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn’t work out very well. Following a total ban on everything festive, from decorations to gatherings, rebellions broke out across the country.

Case against cargo ship’s owners dismissed by Darwin judge due to shortcoming in the Marine Pollution Act in force at the time.

Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s now departing chief adviser, has been at the centre of a drive to “harness the power of data and technology” at every turn. Technology has a role to play in modern government, but what Cummings seems intent on fashioning appears something closer to a populist...

Experts in cultural preservation worldwide agree that it is impossible to protect all of these places forever. Many would require constant restoration. Others will need defenses like sea walls and flood gates – but those defenses might not be effective for long.

President-elect Joe Biden has announced his transition COVID-19 advisory council, and there are high expectations that its recommendations to combat the pandemic will be backed by science and reflect public health best practices.

A Russian-brokered cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan this week halted fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory, where long-standing hostilities reerupted on Sept. 27.

Don’t accept funding from nations, organisation or individuals with dubious human rights records, most UK academics urge.

The news of a potentially viable vaccine for COVID-19 is exciting, but even once we start administering an effective jab it will take a long time to halt the spread of the virus. Many countries are still trying to contain dangerous epidemics, and several have had to implement further economically...

Children are being injured on a monthly basis around Australia by tiny button batteries. There has even been a fatality.

State of the Climate 2020 puts all these events into the longer-term context of climate change trends and key climate drivers.

COVID continues to ravage societies around the world, and a key issue is how governments can afford to fight it. As economies are disrupted, governments are stepping in to increase their spending to bail out companies, pay the cost of health measures, and subsidise workers’ wages.

Telstra’s plan to split into three entities is the most radical shake-up of Australia’s largest telecommunications company since the Howard government began privatising it in 1997.

The European Union has already announced it is considering a carbon border tax. This would involve a tariff on imports from nations without a price on carbon similar to the EU.

Twenty obstetricians say they will resign from Blacktown Hospital over a range of concerns, including the deaths of four babies in 18 months.

When TV viewing went up overall during the spring lockdown, the greatest growth was in streaming services, while increased viewing for live TV was primarily driven by news consumption.

Marise Payne says decision by Beijing-backed authorities to disqualify pro-democracy lawmakers further undermines Hong Kong’s rule of law.

Donald Trump set bold goals for space exploration during his time in office – from crewed missions to the Moon and Mars to a Space Force.

China’s increasingly belligerent threats to close its markets to Australian exports have excited talk of a full-blown trade war.

The Cashless Debit Card scheme quarantines 80% of social security payments to a cashless card, which prevents spending on alcohol, illegal drugs and gambling products.

Right now the RBNZ is holding off such a move in favour of other monetary stimulus measures. But the big banks strongly oppose negative rates, arguing they’ve had limited success overseas and that the country’s banking technology isn’t up to it.

Social isolation and financial stress were big drivers of increased domestic violence in Australian homes during pandemic, researchers say.

Last weekend, a few hours after the US presidential election was called for Joe Biden, Myanmar voters started lining up for their own chance to decide whether the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, would return for a second term.

NSW inspectors are blitzing city entertainment venues and finding numerous coronavirus-related safety breaches. Multiple fines issued.

In West Texas, earthquake rates are now 30 times higher than they were in 2013. Studies have also linked earthquakes to oil field operations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Ohio.

On the global stage, as at home, Biden is likely to follow a familiar script. Most obviously, he will embrace America’s alliances and strengthen its engagement with multilateral institutions.

Australia has in the past often hesitated to adopt a strong privacy framework. The new review, however, provides an opportunity to improve data protection rules to an internationally competitive standard.

Designing buildings so they can easily be taken apart and the materials reused provides a feasible and commercial pathway for minimising waste and greenhouse gas emissions.

Cops say they are targeting the criminal economy by confiscating criminal assets and removing the profit from crime.

German biotech company BioNTech and US pharmaceutical Pfizer announced on Monday promising early results from their phase 3 clinical trial for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Great news for those Australians who are out of work in historically high numbers and also a win for the economy, says retail body.

It was the Bank of Japan which first embarked on the experiment known as quantitative easing, or QE, in order to try and stimulate the Japanese economy out of its period of very low growth known as the “lost decade” between 1991 and 2001.

The federal government will extend the JobSeeker Coronavirus supplement for an extra three months, to the end of March, at a cost of $3.2 billion.