
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.
Recognition of Macedonian language a ‘grave mistake,’ says prominent linguist
Greece committed a “grave mistake” in recognizing the existence of a Macedonian language, prominent linguist and former education minister Georgios Babiniotis said, adding that the clause in the Prespes accord signed between Athens and Skopje

Greek foreign ministry reacts to Erdogan comments on military flights in Aegean
Athens immediately responded on Friday to inflammatory statements a day earlier by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who, among others, said “we (Turkish military) scramble aircraft in the Aegean, as long as the Greeks do

Lack of new framework to protect primary residences blocks disbursement of €970 mln to Greece
Eurozone finance ministers – the Eurogroup venue – on Monday did not approve the disbursement of a 970-million-euro tranche to Greece, a more-or-less expected development linked with a failure to finalize a new legal framework

Mitsotakis to CNN: Greece will be a ‘positive surprise’ in terms of investments in next 2-3 years
Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis stuck to his pro-reform and pro-market message during an interview with CNN on Monday, as he continued a visit to the United States amid opinion polls

British newspaper reveals plans to uncover Athens’ ancient Ilissos river
The British newspaper The Telegraph revealed on Sunday that a Greek urban renewal firm called ”Anaplasis” plans to uncover Athens’ ancient river of Ilissos. Back in October of 2018, a part of the Athenian tram

Greece blasts BBC for report on non existant “Oppressed Macedonian Minority”
Greece’s Ambassador to the UK, Dimitris Karamitsos-Tziras, send a letter of complaint to the BBC on Monday, following a report which spoke of the existence of a “Macedonian minority” in the country. Karamitsos-Tziras said the

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

“Drums of war” in the Middle East: Awaiting Iran’s retaliation – Israel on high alert
The Middle East appears ready to explode as the war atmosphere intensifies just hours after the U.S. declared that Tehran might attack Israel within the next 24 hours. All eyes are on Iran and the

Stock markets around the world are crashing right now, but why?
The answer to this question is the Yen carry trade, a term you’ll probably hear many times this week. So what exactly is the Yen carry trade and why did it cause a market downturn?

Japan’s Nikkei is down 12%, the largest drop ever
Japan’s Nikkei is down 12%, the largest point ever, as fears of a US recession shook global markets. The Topix index erased its yearly gains, experiencing its steepest sell-off since “Black Monday” in October 1987.

Will Turkey attack NATO with American ships?
President Joe Biden pushed through his sale of F-16s and upgrade kits to Turkey on the logic that the deal was necessary to get Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to drop his objection to Sweden

Australia’s preeminent strategic thinkers: The era of Anglo-Saxon dominance in the Pacific is ending
This might be the most compelling and influential argument against AUKUS, particularly because it comes from one of Australia’s foremost strategic thinkers: Hugh White, the inaugural Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and

The impending conflict between NATO allies: Greece and Turkey
The relations between Turkey and Greece have never been normal. The legacy of Mongol Turkish conquest of Greece in the fifteenth-century poisons all connections between Turks and Greeks. The Greeks remember their Turkish oppressors like

