Call for Australia to adopt federal human rights act
Legal experts say Australia is lagging in its human rights approach and should adopt a federal human rights act. ⌘ Read more

Taronga Zoo to ‘rewild’ cleared farmland with native Australian animals
Taronga Zoo has successfully bred native Australian animals for years — but it now has a vision on how to re-establish their populations. ⌘ Read more

Scorchers take aim at Sixers as young gun out duels Lanning in WBBL
The Perth Scorchers keep their WBBL title hopes alive with a win over the Stars in a knockout final, as youngster Chloe Ainsworth shows her credentials on the big stage. ⌘ Read more

The Inevitable Shape of Cheap Online Retail
Pinduoduo in China, Shopee in Southeast Asia, and Meesho in India operate in markets that could hardly be more different – an upper-middle-income industrial state, a stitched-together archipelago of under-banked economies, and a country where three-quarters of retail is unorganized and e-commerce penetration sits at about 7% – yet all three have landed on the same business model.

These pla … ⌘ Read more

Man charged over alleged gunfire, grenade attack in Sydney’s north-west
A 19-year-old is expected to front court on Wednesday after been charged over the alleged shooting at a Tallawong home. ⌘ Read more

Abuse survivors say Centrelink’s ‘couple rule’ puts women in danger
Financial and domestic abuse survivors say the way Centrelink assesses benefit payments for people in a relationship makes it harder for women to leave dangerous relationships. ⌘ Read more

Changes are coming for short-term rentals in Brisbane’s suburban areas
Up to 500 short-term rental operators will be told to return to the long-term rental market under major reforms announced by Brisbane City Council. ⌘ Read more

Rain across NSW to provide bushfire relief for next few days
The most widespread rain in three months will develop across New South Wales during the coming days, reducing the threat of bushfires in the lead-up to Christmas. ⌘ Read more

Planned power outage impacted ability to defend homes from bushfires
A planned power outage went ahead in the Bulahdelah area in northern NSW on Friday despite an active bushfire in the region, which later destroyed four homes. ⌘ Read more

How Pokemon Cards Became a Stock Market For Millennials
The Pokemon Trading Card Game has quietly transformed into something its creators never intended: a speculative asset class dominated by adults hunting for profit while children struggle to find a single pack on store shelves. The resale market has climbed so high that the latest set, Phantasmal Flames, had a rare Charizard illustration valued at more than $800 b … ⌘ Read more

Gaza named deadliest place for journalists in 2025
Gaza has been named the deadliest place in the world to work as a journalist by French-based press freedom advocates Reporters Without Borders. ⌘ Read more

Christmas cards remind prisoners they are ‘not forgotten’ over the holidays
Two Adelaide women have made it their mission to collect 2,000 Christmas cards for prisoners who’ll spend this year’s festive season behind bars. ⌘ Read more

Demand for water cannot be an ‘afterthought’ in AI push
Australia has more than 250 data centres and more in the pipeline, prompting experts to warn against using drinking water to cool servers. ⌘ Read more

Calls to protect victims of financial abuse caught in $11 billion debt trap
Perpetrators of financial abuse commit fraud by impersonating their partners, making them company directors in secret and putting business and tax debts in their names. The government wants to fix the problem, but will its proposed reforms go far enough? ⌘ Read more

The social media ban for under-16s starts today — here’s what to know
After months of build-up, the time has finally come. From today, Australians under the age of 16 are now banned from having a social media account. ⌘ Read more

‘Additional cuts are not needed’ with rate hikes now on the agenda
The Reserve Bank governor has opened the door to interest rate hikes in 2026, but how soon will she walk through it? ⌘ Read more

Quiz: Test you knowledge of Australian geography
Which state has the longest land border? Test your knowledge in today’s quiz. ⌘ Read more

How Peter Jackson fought for his Middle-earth dream, armed with a VHS tape
Peter Jackson’s life wouldn’t be the same after that red carpet event on December 10, 2001, but it’s fair to say cinema, and New Zealand, wouldn’t be the same either. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft To Invest $17.5 Billion in India
Microsoft announced on Tuesday its largest-ever investment in Asia – $17.5 billion over four years starting in 2026 – to expand cloud and AI infrastructure across India, fund skilling programs, and support ongoing operations in the country. The commitment adds to a $3 billion investment the company announced in January 2025 that is on track to be spent by the end of 2026. A new hyperscale cloud … ⌘ Read more

Dozens of residents win right to remain in Melbourne housing estate
Residents of a former migrant hostel have won the right to keep living in their homes, years after they were first threatened with eviction because of a zoning issue. ⌘ Read more

Thousands forced to flee as Thailand-Cambodia border clashes spread
More than 140,000 civilians have been evacuated from border regions since fresh fighting between Thailand and Cambodia began on Sunday, officials said. ⌘ Read more

What Happens When an ‘Infinite-Money Machine’ Unravels
Michael Saylor’s software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, built a financial model that some observers called an “infinite-money machine” by stockpiling hundreds of thousands of bitcoins and issuing stock and debt to buy more, but that machine appears to be breaking down. The company’s stock peaked above $450 in mid-July and ended November at $177.18, … ⌘ Read more

Xbox Is Bleeding Out
Microsoft’s Xbox consoles were conspicuously absent from Black Friday’s winners, failing to crack the top three in U.S. sales during one of the retail calendar’s most important weeks. According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, the PlayStation 5 captured 47% of Black Friday week console sales ending November 29, followed by the Nintendo Switch 2 at 24% and – somewhat remarkably – the NEX Playground, a Kinect-like Android device … ⌘ Read more

We got a very colorful sunset today: https://lyse.isobeef.org/abendhimmel-2025-12-09/

The Rarest of All Diseases Are Becoming Treatable
In February, a six-month-old baby named KJ Muldoon became the first person ever to receive a CRISPR gene-editing treatment customized specifically for his unique genetic mutation, a milestone that researchers say marks a turning point in how medicine might approach the thousands of rare diseases that collectively affect 30 million Americans. Muldoon was born with a type of … ⌘ Read more

Trump criticises ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe as he lashes out at immigration
The US president criticises Europe’s “weak” leaders and claims EU nations are “decaying” due to immigration. ⌘ Read more

‘Colleges Oversold Education. Now They Must Sell Connection’
A tenured USC professor is arguing that universities need to fundamentally rethink their value proposition as AI rapidly closes the gap on human instruction and a loneliness epidemic grips the generation most likely to be sitting in their lecture halls. Eric Anicich, an associate professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, wrote in the Los Angeles Times … ⌘ Read more

Ukraine to send US revised peace plan as Zelenskyy rules out ceding territory
Donald Trump’s initial proposal to end the war was judged by Ukraine’s allies to be overly favourable to Russia. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable
Microsoft Excel, the 40-year-old spreadsheet application that helped establish personal computers as essential workplace tools and contributed to Microsoft’s current valuation of nearly $4 trillion, has weathered both the rise of cloud computing and the current AI boom largely unscathed. In its most recent quarter, commercial revenue for Microsoft 365 – the bundle i … ⌘ Read more

India’s Aviation Crisis Is All About Too Big to Tame
India’s dominant airline IndiGo has cancelled roughly 3,000 flights since last week after new pilot fatigue regulations collided with technical issues and the seasonal schedule shift, stranding more than half a million passengers and forcing aviation authorities to reverse course on the safety rules they had just implemented.

InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo’s parent company, … ⌘ Read more

At least 22 killed as fire rips through office block in Jakarta
The fire broke out on the first floor of an office building in Indonesia’s capital around midday on Tuesday, with at least 100 firefighters deployed to contain the blaze. ⌘ Read more

Science Journal Retracts Study On Safety of Monsanto’s Roundup
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto’s claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don’t cause cancer. Martin van den Berg, the journal’s editor in chie … ⌘ Read more

Family pays emotional tribute to 10yo boy as inquest closes
The inquest into the boy’s death in state care hears he was a bright and mischievous boy who was proud of his heritage. WARNING: This story contains distressing content. ⌘ Read more

‘Until the bitter end’: Reynolds will never give up fight against Commonwealth
Former defence minister Linda Reynolds says former colleagues failed her and that she won’t stop fighting to clear her name against “lies” no matter the cost. ⌘ Read more

Honduras seeks arrest of ex-president Hernández after Trump pardon
Juan Orlando Hernández had been sentenced in US federal court last year to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the United States. ⌘ Read more

Evidence That Humans Now Speak In a Chatbot-Influenced Dialect Is Getting Stronger
Researchers and moderators are increasingly concerned that ChatGPT-style language is bleeding into everyday speech and writing. The topic has been explored in the past but “two new, more anecdotal reports, suggest that our chatbot dialect isn’t just something that can be found through close analysis of data,” r … ⌘ Read more

Queensland expands croc management plan to ease targeted removal
The government says the plan will help improve public safety and make it easier to remove crocodiles in hotspots along the coast. ⌘ Read more

Un peu de publicité
Surprise, l’actualité officielle des médias de grand chemin finit par traiter le « scandale de l’autopen » ! Il y a quelques jours, à la faveur d’une des tonitruantes déclarations du président américain, la presse française découvrait le scandale du « stylo automatique ». Pour rappel, cet « autopen » est une machine qui permet la reproduction automatique d’une signature et est […] ⌘ Read more

Woman who fatally struck child with car outside high school avoids prison
The family of a 12-year-old boy fatally struck by a car as he left school criticises the sentence handed down to the driver. ⌘ Read more

Prosecution tells jury accused lied when denying involvement in alleged murder
The prosecution has begun its closing arguments in the final stages of Jodie Hill’s three week murder trial following the brutal killing of an elderly man in his Dimboola home almost three years ago. ⌘ Read more

Destroyed homeless tents were not ‘homes’, council tells court
The City of Moreton Bay council has told the Supreme Court that homeless tents it destroyed were not “homes” and the human right to a home was not violated. ⌘ Read more

England’s woes continue with Wood out of Ashes
England’s Ashes woes have continue with spearhead quick Mark Wood ruled out of the rest of the tour with a knee injury. ⌘ Read more

Police investigating deaths of two women in Melbourne’s north-east
Two women, aged 84 and 64, were found dead in a home in Rosanna following a welfare check on Tuesday morning. ⌘ Read more

Australian festival icon mourned after death at 73
Woodford Folk Festival founder Bill Hauritz has died after a lengthy illness, but his grieving loved ones say his legacy will live on. ⌘ Read more

Ongoing prison lockdowns could affect inmates’ health, advocate says
Advocates for prisoners and the union representing correctional officers are calling on the government to reach an urgent pay agreement to help end the statewide prison lockdown. ⌘ Read more

Claude Code Is Coming To Slack
Anthropic is bringing Claude Code directly into Slack, letting developers spin up coding sessions from chat threads and automate workflows without leaving the app. TechCrunch reports: Previously, developers could only get lightweight coding help via Claude in Slack – like writing snippets, debugging, and explanations. Now they can tag @Claude to spin up a complete coding session using Slack context like bu … ⌘ Read more

Shark feeding frenzy at Byron Bay ‘spectacular’ but dangerous
A marine scientist warns against getting in the ocean with sharks after footage emerges of swimmers at Byron Bay next to a huge school of bait fish and hundreds of the predators. ⌘ Read more

Woman accused of googly eyes vandalism to begin negotiations with prosecution
A 20-year-old Mount Gambier woman appears in court in person for the first time, accused of damaging a controversial sculpture, following a campaign to raise money online for her defence. ⌘ Read more

Wells initiates audit of expenses as Shorten defends her against ‘pile-on’
The sports minister maintains all her taxpayer-funded expenses have been within the guidelines. ⌘ Read more

New bushfire threat for Tasmanian town, as people told ‘leave immediately’
On the same day that residents in one Tasmanian community are returning to find if their homes are still standing after a bushfire last week, residents in one area are told to ‘leave immediately’ due to a new threat. ⌘ Read more