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Aug 19, 2026 - World

Follow today’s news liveFollow our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast‘Collapsing confidence’ in housing market, Wilson saysTim Wilson has jumped on that reporting around rent increases and says there has been a collapse in confidence since the budget which is hurting renters.We’ve had, since the budget, collapsing confidence, a lack of will to invest in housing that is going to be available for rentals.We’re seeing a complete disaster in the housing market, and we know that’s only going to do one thing while the government continues to overshoot its migration target, and that is an increase in rents on Australians struggling to save a first home deposit.There is an awful lot that goes into determining rents in Australia, and the thing that Treasury modelled in the context of the budget, what is the isolated effect of what the government actually changed about the housing market. And if I just step back for a second, we’ve got a broken housing system in our country, and it’s the renters of Australia who are bearing the brunt of really 40 years of government’s not doing enough about this problem.I think that Clare sadly needs to start taking a bit of responsibility for her housing policy. But also, Clare, stop gaslighting Australians, stop gaslighting the mum and dads who are currently watching this show and feeling the impact of your toxic housing taxes … She can sit on your show and defend her policies, but the evidence on the ground, the evidence from the experts, is that Labor’s toxic housing taxes are smashing the market. Continue reading...

Aug 19, 2026 - World

Israel said that it had attacked the base because Syria had been "on the verge of breaching" an agreed-upon "status quo in security matters" by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.

Aug 19, 2026 - World

US president delays 50% tariffs by three days, and says contentious oil project ‘may be awoken from the grave’Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching a Tuesday-evening agreement with Trump administration officials hours before a hike that would have affected $20bn worth of goods was set to take effect.Donald Trump posted late on Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!” Continue reading...

Aug 19, 2026 - World

Allowing jurors to stay in same hotel as police and prosecution denied Patterson a fair trial, lawyers tell Victorian court of appealLawyers for Erin Patterson argue that allowing jurors to stay in the same hotel as police and the prosecution while they deliberated over their verdicts in the triple murder trial represented a “catastrophic” failure of the justice system.On Wednesday, three judges of Victoria’s highest court started hearing two appeals – by Patterson herself and the state’s director of public prosecutions (DPP) – into the conviction and sentence in the case. Continue reading...

Aug 19, 2026 - World

Victorian court of appeal to consider whether triple murder and attempted murder guilty verdicts should be quashedMushroom murderer Erin Patterson was convicted over three deaths. Now she’ll argue the court got it wrongGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLimited accomodation during sequestering ‘issues of convenience’, Patterson’s barrister saysKidd says Patterson’s case must be considered in the context of other cases where jurors had unsupervised access to “outsiders”. He says in this case the jurors were under the supervision of the jury-keeper at all times.They are not, in our submission, a principled response.If there has been no breach, then where’s the fundamental irregularity?There’s no evidence that that’s occurred here. Continue reading...