
Australia to mandate cash payments for essential purchases from 2026
Australia will introduce a nationwide cash mandate requiring major grocery and fuel retailers to accept cash payments from January 1, 2026, in a move aimed at protecting consumers who rely on physical currency for everyday

Anthony Albanese invites UAE retail giant LuLu to Australia
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shown keen interest in the international retail chain LuLu Hypermarket, inviting Indian billionaire MA Yusuff Ali to consider expanding the company into Australia. The invitation came during the Prime

US gives green light to AUKUS ahead of Albanese’s visit to Washington
Australia’s largest-ever defence agreement, AUKUS, appears to have successfully passed a US government review, paving the way for its continuation ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington next month. The review began in

Federal government’s 5% First Home Deposit Scheme launches tomorrow – concerns over rising prices
Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, October 1, the federal government’s new First Home Buyer Scheme will officially begin, allowing Australians to enter the housing market with just a 5% deposit. The remaining portion will be guaranteed by

Australia cuts deficit by $18 billion through strong labour market and fiscal restraint
The Albanese government has reported a major improvement in Australia’s finances, with the federal budget deficit slashed by $18 billion — a result of robust employment growth, higher wages, and careful spending control. Treasurer Jim

Albanese government launches new agency to prevent defence and veteran suicides
One year after the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide delivered its landmark report, the Albanese government has established Australia’s first independent agency dedicated to preventing suicides among current and former members of the

Australia’s social media age laws praised as ‘world-leading’ at UN
Australia has taken centre stage on the global arena after passing landmark legislation raising the minimum age for social media use from 13 to 16. The reforms, unveiled at the United Nations in New York,

Mitsotakis unveils major housing, loan and farming measures during Budget speech
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis used his address to Parliament during the debate on the State Budget to announce a series of significant policy initiatives targeting housing affordability, Swiss franc loan holders, and farmers. The announcements were described as some of the most substantial interventions of the current parliamentary term.

Tears at the Mati victims memorial service one year after deadly fires
Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis attended the memorial service held on Sunday in memory of the 102 victims of the deadly fire in Mati a year ago. “I can assure you that such a tragedy

PM Mitsotakis announces generous tax cuts incl. properties ENFIA
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has set as his top priority to implement his pre-election program and proceed with taxation cuts as soon as possible. In his policy statement late on Saturday, he announced several tax

PIPES: Kastelorizo: Mediterranean flash point
That Athens controls this wisp of land implies it could (but does not yet) claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean Sea extending 200 nautical miles to Kastelorizo. This would reduce the Turkish

EU agrees to sanction turkey for drilling in Cypriot water
A surprisingly muscular response beyond mere threatening rhetoric out of the European Union over Turkey’s violations of Cypriot territorial waters related to offshore drilling operations: the EU has agreed to bring financial and political sanctions

Archaeology Piece of skull found in Greece ‘is oldest human fossil outside Africa’
A broken skull chiselled from a lump of rock in a cave in Greece is the oldest modern human fossil ever found outside Africa, researchers claim. The partial skull was discovered in the Apidima cave

Athens-Piraeus again in ‘top 10’ in terms of global shipping hubs
The Athens-Piraeus area has returned to the world’s top 10 shipping hubs, according to a recent study by Baltic Exchange. The Greek capital bumped Korea’s Pusan from the “top 10” list, while Singapore remained first,

Libya parliament speaker declares Turkey–Libya memorandum invalid, opens door to talks with Greece, Egypt and Turkey
Libya’s House of Representatives Speaker, Aqila Saleh, has publicly declared the 2019 Turkey–Libya maritime memorandum “invalid,” marking the first such statement in six years and signalling a potential shift in Libya’s approach to maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. Speaking to the Libyan News Agency, just days after an official

Analysis of the European Parliamentary elections
Already, one day after the elections, each party is proposing an interpretation of the results which is in their favour. Any objective reading would be bound to annoy one or the other. And yet the

Turkey: Erdogan describes Armenian Genocide as ‘Reasonable Relocation’
What Erdogan refers to as ‘relocation’ was actually the genocidal deportation of civilian populations — mainly women, children and the elderly — to the very interior of Asia Minor. These populations were not simply relocated

Populists shatter EU status Quo with strong showing
The preliminary results from the European Parliamentary elections are in. And just like the polls anticipated, the pro-European status quo has suffered a serious blow.

The hard truths about Turkey’s continued denial and lies
The participation of the hundreds and thousands of people in the memorial events organized in Greece and abroad on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Genocide of the Greeks of Pontus, and the

‘Clash of civilizations’ or crisis of civilization?
The outlook of current Western leaders suggests that humanity will be hard pressed to survive the 21st century Talk about a graphic display of soft power: Beijing this week hosted the Conference on Dialogue of

Are you ready for a worse dystopia than 1984?
It has been a lonely concern with the dire economic implications of robotics, but now Clarity Press has provided us with some company by publishing The Artificial Intelligence Contagion by David Barnhizer and Daniel Barnhizer.

