
RBA holds firm: No cuts until job market softens further
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock has reinforced the bank’s cautious stance on interest rate cuts, stating that further evidence of a weakening labour market is needed before any monetary easing. Speaking at the

Victorian Government’s $1.2bn school tutoring program fails to deliver results
The Victorian government’s $1.2bn school tutoring program, which started during the pandemic to help students at risk of falling behind to catch up, did not significantly improve the outcomes for those involved, according to the

Peter Dutton’s proposed nuclear power plant sites
Peter Dutton has announced he will go to the next election promising to build seven nuclear power stations. Mr Dutton has promised the first sites can be operational between 2035 and 2037, several years earlier

Victoria’s middle class the “new face” of poverty
A growing number of working families are being added to the queues of economically impoverished Australians relying on food donations during the cost-of-living crisis. Foodbank Australia, whose latest needs assessment shows 3.7 million households struggled

Fighting fires from space in record time: how AI could prevent a repeat of Australia’s devastating wildfires
Australian scientists are getting closer to detecting bushfires in record time, thanks to cube satellites with onboard AI now able to detect fires from space 500 times faster than traditional on-ground processing of imagery. Remote

Treasurer calms recession fears but admits Aussies face ‘Uncertain times’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has reassured Australians that the country is not heading for a recession, even as the economy shows its weakest growth in nearly three years. In an interview with Today, Chalmers addressed data

Fourth Victorian poultry farm detects bird flu
Victoria’s bird flu outbreak has now spread to a fourth poultry farm, a development anticipated by authorities amid ongoing investigations. Agriculture Victoria confirmed today that a farm near Meredith, west of Melbourne, tested positive for

Mitsotakis: Greece will not discuss sovereignty with Turkey – “Twitter diplomacy is easy”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis firmly ruled out any negotiations with Turkey on matters of national sovereignty, in a televised interview with SKAI anchor Sia Kossioni on Tuesday evening. “Greece does not discuss issues of sovereignty. We will never accept the theory of ‘grey zones’, nor will we allow Turkey

Autonomy
The government intends to allow universities and not the education ministry to set the number of students they will admit each year. That addresses a basic need, the need (for many and varied reasons) for

Alarm bell
To avoid the errors of the past the current government must move swiftly to address the deficiencies left behind by previous ones. The extent of the natural disasters by which Greece was struck over the

Theofilus
About 150 years ago, the influential folk artist Theophilus (Theophilus Kefalas – Hatzimichail) was born in the village of Vareia, on the south-eastern tip of the island of Lesvos, overlooking the shores of Asia Minor.

Greek elections: Landslide victory for centre-right New Democracy party
Incumbent prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of Syriza, calls rival Kyriakos Mitsotakis to concede defeat Voters in Greece have given Kyria-kos Mitsotakis’ centre-right New Democracy party a resounding mandate to form a new government after it

Ballot Box stolen from polling center in Exarchia and set on fire
At least one ballot box was stolen from a polling station in the anarchists’ district of Exarchia in Athens and were allegedly set on fire. The unprecedented incidents took place on early Sunday evening short

‘Evdokia’ the 1200 Year Old Olive Tree in Corfu, Greece
An imposing olive tree on Corfu, known as ‘Evdokia’ by the locals, has been estimated to be between 1086 and 1200 years old, according to stu-dies by German scientists from the Dresden University of Technology.

Orban raises prospectof EU exit, citing Brussels’ authoritarian drift
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has once again raised the prospect of a Hungarian exit from the European Union, suggesting that the bloc’s authoritarian evolution may soon outweigh the benefits of membership. Speaking in an interview with the far-right platform Ultrahang, Orban said that Hungary’s EU membership “still makes sense

Venezuela orders PDVSA to relocate to Moscow; Putin affirms support to Maduro
President Nicolas Maduro instructed the Lisbon branch of PDVSA to relocate to Moscow A top Venezuelan official has announced that President Nicolas Maduro has ordered national oil and gas company PDVSA to close its current

The CIA is using Turkey to pressure China
While Turkey has fostered economic links with China in order to solve its economic crisis, it has also publicly denounced the repression of the Uyghurs, basing its accusations on false information. Beijing sent a very

Turkish occupying troops advance positions in Cyprus
The Cypriot government announced on Friday that it is working in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force to resolve tensions following an advance of the Turkish army inside Cyprus. Cyprus State radio (CyBC) said the

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

Saker interview with Michael Hudson on Venezuela
There is a great deal of controversy about the true shape of the Venezuelan economy and whether Hugo Chavez’ and Nicholas Maduro’s reform and policies were crucial for the people of Venezuela or whether they

Council of Europe condemns Sharia councils in UK for contradicting Human Rights
Sharia Law is a legal system which regulates the lives of devout Muslims and is based on religious precepts and the text of the Quran. The exact number of Sharia councils operating in England and