The Guardian - Australia

With the Reserve Bank poised to hike interest rates today, voters are increasingly pointing the finger at government spending rather than global headwinds. But with household budgets already stretched to breaking point, can Jim Chalmers tame inflation without triggering a recession? Guardian Australia economics editor Patrick Commins joins Reged Ahmad to unpack whether Labor is losing control of the economic narrative. Read more: Is the government really on an ‘out-of-control’ spending splurge?

Microchips, ninja obstacle courses and other ‘modern’ tweaks are being made by sports vying for a coveted spot on the Olympic program in Australia Australia’s teenage race walker Isaac Beacroft won gold at the Commonwealth Games this year, propelling him into contention for a medal at the home Brisbane Olympics in six years’ time. There is just one problem. The International Olympic Committee is considering culling events like his – as well as surfing, skateboarding and climbing, in which Austra

As Josh Shapiro, the governor, mounts outreach program, members say ‘you don’t get to change anybody’s mind’ Making hay was more than a figure of speech last week at the New Holland auction house in Pennsylvania last week, where a ton of top quality hay bales were going for upwards of $400, up about 20% from last year. For members of the Lancaster settlement, a term used to describe the Amish population that settled here in 1760, the price of hay was only part of the discussion: the price of hor

At more than $52m, the race has become the most expensive in US history, but residents are fed up with flooding Aida Havel mulled her fate over coffee after working the early voting polls all day in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. “We are trapped,” she concluded. The Dare county commission candidate lives about 50 miles (80km) south, on Hatteras Island on the state’s Outer Banks. Continue reading...

Republicans are focused on a race that could flip the Senate – and where an Alaska Native is favored Days before Alaskans get to vote, the federal government is already trying to overturn the result. Last week, at Donald Trump’s behest, the justice department sued to block the certification of Alaska’s US Senate race, if the Republican incumbent narrowly loses; a judge dismissed that suit on Sunday, though the administration said it planned to appeal. On Wednesday, Trump demanded that Mary Pelto

In state where driving is part of life, president’s pledge to lower prices at the pumps cuts little ice Behind the granite countertops of Fuel City, a gas station in Dallas where taxidermy deer flank the entrance and hot tacos are served 24/7, Alina Cardenas sees first-hand that Texans are stretched thin. Drivers are filling up less, she said, while ringing people up for cigarettes and beer, and fewer people are buying a full tank. Some stop once they’ve reached $10 or $20 worth of gasoline. Con

Journalists such as Jim Acosta and Scott MacFarlane are now competing against their former employers for eyeballs On Tuesday, for the first time in more than 20 years, Jim Acosta, a former CNN stalwart, will not be working for a mainstream television network on election night. Acosta, who left CNN last year after nearly 18 years at the network, is putting on his own live broadcast at the University of Virginia that will air on YouTube and his Substack platform. Continue reading...

Major changes in US law and industry have shifted the sources of large contributions to political campaigns – and how much they spend The upcoming midterm elections will be the most expensive elections ever conducted in the US. And more of the money is “dark” than ever before, meaning it’s impossible to get a full picture of who is spending gargantuan sums to influence races that could provide a critical check on Donald Trump’s second term. The elections have also shown how money in politics is

Sites like Kalshi and Polymarket offer faux populism as elites reap the benefits – and voters risk being misled Online betting is a bit like Donald Trump. The prediction markets – platforms where users bet on whether events will occur – pretend to be populist, pushing the nabobs aside and representing the “wisdom of the crowd”. “This data is bottom-up, not elites-driven,” a Kalshi ​spokesperson told Reuters. But in fact, the markets are controlled by a few, skillful traders. Continue reading...

The new words that end up a part of everyday speech can tell us a lot about the zeitgeist. In a world changing faster than ever, we need to coin some more ‘Maxxing” may be one of our words of the year – sufficient unto the joyless, self-optimising day, dreary as hell – but I’ve been introduced to some fun future contenders. How about “flawnting”? I’ve certainly rolled my eyes at influencers playing “the new parental status game of publicly performing imperfection to signal authenticity” online.

Jasper Jones writer and father sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys, Western Australian district court hears Warning: graphic content Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The award‑winning author Craig Silvey sent multiple messages about his sexual desire for young boys and was caught with explicit images of children and adults. The young adult novelist was jailed on Monday for seven months after pleading guilty to distributing and possessing child

Marco Rose’s tactics are lifting Bournemouth, Roméo Lavia makes progress with Chelsea and Roberto De Zerbi gives youth a chance at Spurs Good defending is the mark of champions. At Anfield, where Arsenal had not won in the past 13 visits, Mikel Arteta followed the orthodoxy of locking down once his team took the lead. This time around, it proved successful. Arsenal did not allow the occasion or the stadium to get to them as they have on previous occasions. In April 2023, Granit Xhaka entangling

Sharon Horgan executive produced this moreish road trip story about addiction, mishaps and revelations. Plus, the new one from Serial’s Sarah Koenig “I never thought I’d be back here with the fluorescent lights and lukewarm coffee,” says recovering addict Tim (Rob Delaney). “But then Lucy Green ruined my life.” So begins this intriguing 10-part drama of bite-size episodes, executive produced by Sharon Horgan. It rewinds to Tim escorting millennial pop star Lucy (Bel Powley) to rehab in Arizona o

With just a few short hours of daylight, the usual boundaries marking time fall away in Abisko, one of the most reliable places to see the northern lights Looking over the edge of the snow-smoothed canyon down to dark rushing water, we thought we saw a moose or a reindeer, but it could have been a rock. The light was fading fast so it was hard to tell. It was time to turn back; we didn’t want to get lost in the wood, or fall into the river. By the time we’d retraced our steps to Abisko, the blue

Despite the US president’s ratings being at rock bottom, undoing his legacy will be difficult, not least because the Democrats are in disarray The stats and polling all suggest one thing: the Republicans are set for a hammering in the midterms. Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating of any US president going into a midterm election since Harry Truman. And it’s still dropping. The Democrats are projected to win by a margin of 11 percentage points, the largest swing by any party in almost 20

Frustration grows over the economy with one Labor MP saying voter anger is already high ahead of Reserve Bank of Australia decision Get our daily political email, free app or daily news podcast The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has warned an expected interest rate increase will force job losses and cause businesses to close, insisting the federal government and states should rein in spending to take pressure off the economy. The intervention from the leader of the country’s biggest state will heap y

Multimillionaire lifestyle mogul says her costume was ‘insensitive and not funny’ after provoking furious backlash Martha Stewart has apologised after sharing an image of herself dressed as a homeless person for Halloween, which provoked a backlash online. The 85-year-old media personality, who is worth an estimated US$400m, shared a picture of herself on Instagram on 31 October, in which she had a dirty face and wore ripped jeans and a beanie while holding up a sign that read: “I AM HUNGRY HELP

From Heidi Klum as her own severed hand to Lily Allen as a Ticketmaster seating plan, this year the celebrities didn’t disappoint Continue reading...

The radical assault on longstanding measures to drive down Australia’s emissions and facilitate decarbonisation seems almost pathological Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here The Coalition is repudiating its longstanding policy positions on climate, even to the extent of disowning many of the structures it created when in government. Such thinking is not from the conservative tradition and has more in common with the radical. In my view, it is a

The app for a ⁠short time showed some areas ‌subject to false nuclear ‌and chemical alerts; temporary local ceasefire expires in southern Kherson. What we know on day 1,713 Ukraine’s air force said it suspected the country’s aid raid alert app – which is used across the country to warn people of the threat of airstrikes – had been hacked. On Sunday the app for a ⁠short time showed Kyiv and ​other areas ‌subject to nuclear ‌and chemical alerts. An erroneous message also said Russia’s hypersonic O