What the ‘Cornell 7’ tells us about male silence, violence and misogyny

News of an alleged rape involving seven men at an elite university – a case being called the ‘Cornell 7’ – is reverberating across the US.  For many people, the case – and the way the men and the institutions involved responded at the time – echoes high profile incidents here in Australia.  So wh…

Ben Roberts-Smith and the One Nation law change that could impact his trial

In April this year, Ben Roberts-Smith was arrested and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. He’s now out on bail and maintains his innocence – and One Nation has swung its support behind him.  Now, the minor party says it’s also seeking to make a change to the criminal code — a ch…

Why interest rate pain is now worse than the bad old days of 17.5%

For years we’ve heard from older generations that the current interest rate pain is nothing compared to the horror of 17.5 per cent rates in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. But now, as the Reserve Bank delivers its fourth hike this year, analysis shows the pain being inflicted on homeowners is compa…

The Medicare hack and the rise of rogue AI agents

In June, an OpenAI agent was looking for public information about medicines spending when it broke into a Medicare statistics website and accessed files it wasn’t authorised to see. No personal Medicare information was accessed, and the breach itself was relatively minor. But the behaviour is more…

AI is eating the world’s books

A rare old book can now be worth more dead than alive. Books are being bought, cut apart and scanned to train artificial intelligence. Nobody knows how many books have been destroyed this way, but second-hand booksellers around the world have reported anonymous orders ranging from thousands to as…

The Korean doomsday church targeting Australians

When starting out at university, it’s normal to want to meet new friends and establish a community. But for some young Australians, that formative time has led them down the path of a secretive and extreme religious group accused of using deceptive tactics to draw in young people: Shincheonji.  A…

Is liberal democracy running out of answers?

For decades, liberal democracy came with a promise: that with each generation we would become freer, wealthier, and have more control over our lives. But after years of economic shocks, war and political upheaval, more and more people seem to have stopped believing that promise. And in its place,…

Could Australia’s media survive Trump-style attacks?

For years, Donald Trump’s attacks on the media were treated as part of the spectacle of his politics. Now, three major news organisations have had their White House passes revoked – and Trump says others could follow. Here in Australia, we’re seeing Pauline Hanson follow the same playbook – with O…

The absurd lengths Australia goes to keep Nauru Airlines flying

It’s an uncomfortable fact our government doesn’t like to face: 25 years on from the Tampa affair, we’re still paying a tiny island micro-nation hundreds of millions of dollars to keep immigration detention alive. One of the ways we’re doing that is by helping to prop up Nauru Airlines – a company…

Trump and Murdoch: The enemies who need each other

One of the defining themes of Donald Trump's presidencies has been his war against the media. Last week, he banned journalists from three media outlets from the White House, saying he’s had enough of the negative stories about him. This week, those outlets sued him over the ban. And just last yea…