Queensland government raking in billions as land tax net widens
Thousands more properties have fallen under Queensland’s land tax regime, as the state is projected to raise hundreds of millions in extra revenue each year from the charge. ⌘ Read more

Hundreds of unexploded bombs are found every year. Here’s what to do if you see one
The Australian Defence Force’s bomb disposal squad responds to about 500 unexploded ordnance incidents a year, with many of the devices washing up on beaches. ⌘ Read more

Major incident as 200 homes evacuated and two held
A controlled explosion took place after two men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offences. ⌘ Read more

Broad heatwave spreads across the state, hottest summer on the cards
Just days into summer and a broad heatwave is already spreading across the country. ⌘ Read more

Saved by Starc, Australia’s selection gamble exposes its underbelly
A day of tough, fluctuating Test cricket kickstarts the Ashes series at last as Mitchell Starc and Joe Root carry their sides despite concerns about what lies beneath. ⌘ Read more

Microsoft ‘Mitigates’ Windows LNK Flaw Exploited As Zero-Day
joshuark shares a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft has silently “mitigated” a high-severity Windows LNK vulnerability exploited by multiple state-backed and cybercrime hacking groups in zero-day attacks. Tracked as CVE-2025-9491, this security flaw allows attackers to hide malicious commands within Windows LNK files, which can be used to deploy malwar … ⌘ Read more

Have British spies learned lessons from the Skripal poisonings?
Rusia’s ability to target a defector with nerve agent is almost certainly diminished but it may pose other threats, the BBC’s security correspondent writes. ⌘ Read more

Pentagon watchdog releases report on Hegseth’s use of Signal app
The 84-page report finds US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated policy and could have put American troops at risk when he used the Signal app to discuss military strikes in Yemen. ⌘ Read more

Israel-aligned anti-Hamas militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab killed
Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab, whose anti-Hamas group had been supported by Israel, has been killed after an attack in southern Gaza. ⌘ Read more

Thousands have left Pacific worker scheme and are stuck in visa limbo
Pacific Islanders have been leaving Australia’s guest worker scheme, a decision that breaches their visa conditions and leaves them “extremely vulnerable”. ⌘ Read more

AI can influence voters’ minds. What does that mean for democracy?
Voters change their opinions after interacting with an AI chatbot – but, encouragingly, it seems that AIs rely on facts to influence people ⌘ Read more

This 18-year-old is the first badged netball umpire in a wheelchair
Brodie Taylor has changed the game of netball by overturning disability preconceptions to become the first person in a wheelchair to attain national netball umpiring accreditation. ⌘ Read more

Putin says Russia will take Donbas by force or Ukraine’s troops will withdraw
The Russian leader’s comments come as US and Ukrainian negotiators are due to hold a new round of talks. ⌘ Read more

‘Irresponsible and harmful’: News Corp attacked by school leaders over NAPLAN
Forty-one signatories to an open letter say they are “dismayed” and that school rankings cause “harm to our communities”. ⌘ Read more

Bcachefs Ready With Its Reconcile Feature As Biggest Change In Two Years
The out-of-tree Bcachefs file-system is ready with its reconcile feature, which previously was known as “rebalance_v2”, and what lead developer Kent Overstreet calls the biggest feature to this copy-on-write file-system in the last two years… ⌘ Read more

German president compares UK ties post-Brexit to Oasis
Frank-Walter Steinmeier says both sides had decided to not look back in anger while referencing band’s reunion. ⌘ Read more

Concern about bushfire ‘apathy’ after town is almost destroyed
A fast moving grass fire almost burned through the southern NSW town of Corowa last week. Despite the extreme fire danger rating, residents say they weren’t prepared for such an intense fire so early in the season. ⌘ Read more

Weekly news quiz: Blacked-out raccoon, poor strategy call and the PM’s wedding
Think you have had your ears to the ground? It’s time to test your knowledge of the week that was. ⌘ Read more

Bootleggers, gangsters and a massacre: Why America’s Prohibition backfired
Prohibition was officially repealed on December 5, 1933. But the beginning of its end can be traced back years earlier — to a highly-publicised massacre by firing squad. ⌘ Read more

The Studio to The Golden Bachelor: Our favourite new TV shows in 2025
From a send-up of Hollywood studios to a chilling depiction of violence and masculinity to an age-appropriate reality TV romance, these are our favourite TV shows of 2025. ⌘ Read more

RAM Is So Expensive, Samsung Won’t Even Sell It To Samsung
A severe spike in global DRAM prices has pushed Samsung Semiconductor to refuse a long-term RAM order from its own sibling, Samsung Electronics. The move is forcing the smartphone division into short, expensive renegotiations, which will likely mean higher costs for consumer devices. PCWorld reports: Samsung subsidiaries are, naturally, going to look to Sa … ⌘ Read more

German president compares UK ties post-Brexit to Oasis
Frank-Walter Steinmeier says both sides had decided to not look back in anger while referencing band’s reunion. ⌘ Read more

AUKUS will survive Trump, says former defense minister Smith
The trilateral agreement has come under significant scrutiny, but Australia’s top diplomat in London says he believes its future is assured. ⌘ Read more

Breaking: Israel to perform at Eurovision 2026, prompting some nations to boycott
Israel’s participation at next year’s event has prompted a number of countries to withdraw from the event and one to announce it will not broadcast it. ⌘ Read more

Why is AI making computers and games consoles more expensive?
The AI industry consumes vast amounts of energy, fresh water and investor cash. Now it also needs memory chips - the same ones used in laptops, smartphones and games consoles ⌘ Read more

Several countries boycott Eurovision after Israel allowed to compete
There had been calls for Israel to be excluded over the conduct of the war in Gaza. ⌘ Read more

Netherlands and Spain boycott Eurovision after Israel allowed to compete
There had been calls for Israel to be excluded over the conduct of the war in Gaza. ⌘ Read more

Israel to remain in Eurovision Song Contest
There had been calls for Israel to be excluded over the conduct of the war in Gaza. ⌘ Read more

Novichok poisoning victim’s family ‘still has questions’, as report finds Putin ‘morally responsible’
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in 2018 after coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok. ⌘ Read more

FreeBSD 15.0 Benchmarks Versus FreeBSD 14.3 On AMD EPYC
This week brought the official release of FreeBSD 15.0 as the latest major update to this BSD operating system. In being eager to test out this new FreeBSD release, for this first round of FreeBSD 15.0 benchmarking is seeing how it compares to the former FreeBSD 14.3 release on a Supermicro + AMD EPYC Turin server. ⌘ Read more

Police officer sacked for groping colleagues at party
A misconduct panel says PC Pamela Pritchard breached the force’s standards of behaviour. ⌘ Read more

30% of Doctors In UK Use AI Tools In Patient Consultations, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Almost three in 10 GPs in the UK are using AI tools such as ChatGPT in consultations with patients, even though it could lead to them making mistakes and being sued, a study reveals. The rapid adoption of AI to ease workloads is happening alongside a “wild west” lack of regulat … ⌘ Read more

Putin says Russia disagrees with parts of US plan to end Ukraine war
The Russian leader’s comments come as US and Ukrainian negotiators are due to hold a new round of talks. ⌘ Read more

UK and Norway form naval alliance to hunt Russian submarines
The partnership aims to protect undersea cables, which Western officials say face increased threat from Moscow. ⌘ Read more

Rust-Written Redox OS Sees Initial Wayland Port
Developers behind Redox OS, the original open-source operating system written from scratch in the Rust programming language, have ported Wayland to it with initially getting the Smallvil Wayland compositor up and running along with the Smithay framework and the Wayland version of the GTK toolkit… ⌘ Read more

UK and Norway form naval alliance to hunt Russian submarines
The partnership aims to protect undersea cables, which Western officials say face increased threat from Moscow. ⌘ Read more

Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads For SiriusXM
Subaru owners are reporting full-screen SiriusXM pop-up ads appearing on their infotainment systems while driving – sometimes even overriding Apple CarPlay. Subaru says the ads appear only twice a year, but frustrated drivers argue the practice is distracting, unsafe, and a sign of an industry trend that’s likely to get worse. The Drive reports: At le … ⌘ Read more

New mayoral elections to be delayed in four areas of England until 2028
The new mayoralties in Greater Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Hampshire and the Solent, and Sussex and Brighton will now be contested in 2028. ⌘ Read more

‘No more Average Joe as Root century seals all-time great status’
Joe Root finally hitting the elusive Test century in Australia proves his status as one of the all-time great batters, says chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt. ⌘ Read more

Crypto investor donates record £9m to Reform UK
The sum from Christopher Harborne is the largest ever single donation by a living person to a British political party. ⌘ Read more

Former Intel Open-Source Project SVT-VP9 Sees First Update In 5 Years
The open-source SVT-VP9 project started by Intel as a high performance VP9 video encoder has seen its first new release in five years… ⌘ Read more

Volcano eruption may have led to the Black Death coming to Europe
Climate data and historical accounts suggest that crop failures in the 1340s prompted Italian officials to import grain from eastern Europe, and this may have carried in the plague bacterium ⌘ Read more

Suspect arrested in pipe bomb incident on eve of Jan 6, ending years-long manhunt
The bombs were placed the night before the 6 January riots, and were discovered as rioters began to storm the Capitol. ⌘ Read more

New York Times sues the Pentagon over press access restrictions
The US publication has filed a lawsuit over a new policy requiring journalists to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting information not authorised for release by the Pentagon. ⌘ Read more

Printk Improvement For Linux 6.19 Can Significantly Speed-Up Boot Times For Some Systems
The Linux kernel’s printk code for logging kernel messages has some useful improvements with the Linux 6.19 kernel… ⌘ Read more

What does Vladimir Putin want from India?
The Russian leader’s first state visit to India in nearly four years is expected to focus heavily on trade amid a backdrop of international sanctions and Donald Trump’s tariff policy. ⌘ Read more

Streeting orders review into rising demand for mental health and ADHD services
The review will look at increased pressure on the NHS and whether there is any evidence of over-diagnosis. ⌘ Read more

Man accused of driving synagogue attacker to UK defence site charged with terror offences
Greater Manchester Police confirm the 31-year-old was an associate of Jihad Al-Shamie. ⌘ Read more

Man accused of driving synagogue attacker to UK defence site charged with terror offences
Greater Manchester Police confirm the 31-year-old was an associate of Jihad Al-Shamie. ⌘ Read more

Meta Poaches Apple Design Exec Alan Dye
Apple’s longtime human-interface chief Alan Dye is leaving to lead a new creative studio at Meta’s Reality Labs, where he’ll shape AI-driven design for devices like smart glasses and VR headsets. Dye will be replaced by Steve Lemay, who has had “a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” according to a statement Apple CEO Tim Cook gave Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. TechCrunch … ⌘ Read more