Origin Energy offered to sell Eraring power station to NSW government for $544m

Posted on by

Exclusive: Documents reveal offer was made three years before Origin and government reached deal to keep Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station open

Origin Energy offered to sell its Eraring power station to the New South Wales government for more than half a billion dollars before announcing it would close the plant in August 2025, a document now made public reveals.

The energy company, which last week announced a pact with the government to keep the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station open for at least another two years, had offered to sell back the privatised facility for $544m during negotiations in 2021.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Google and Apple keeping Reddit and X in app stores despite pornography due to revenue, eSafety boss says

Posted on by

Commissioner says companies have ‘huge disincentive’ to abide by their own policies on adult content amid discussions of age assurance technology

Australia’s online safety regulator has accused Apple and Google of financial motives in deciding not to remove Reddit and Elon Musk’s X from their app stores for hosting pornography in violation of their own policies.

Research cited in the eSafety commissioner’s online roadmap for age verification technology for adult sites last year reported that 41% of teens aged between 16 and 18 reported seeing pornography on X – more than the 37% who viewed pornography on dedicated adult sites.

Continue reading...

Hit the road: will 24 new multimillion-dollar electric buses be left sitting in a Brisbane shed?

Posted on by

Brisbane city council ordered 60 of the electric vehicles, but a cut back in scheduled services means just over half may be needed

Two dozen state-of-the art, multimillion-dollar electric buses could be left sitting idle in a shed when the Brisbane Metro service starts operations this year, because it will operate less frequently than initially planned.

The system was originally designed to operate every three minutes, but it’s now planned to run every five minutes, which would require fewer vehicles.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Coalition’s ex-detainee curfew amendments made regime unlawful, high court toldin high court

Posted on by

Exclusive: Lawyers for YBFZ argue default ankle bracelets and curfews are punitive and breach the separation of executive and judiciary

Coalition amendments beefing up the Albanese government’s regime of electronic monitoring and curfews for people released from immigration detention have been cited in the high court as a key reason to strike the laws down.

Lawyers for YBFZ, a stateless man from Eritrea challenging the laws, have argued the curfews are unconstitutional, in part, because the default is that they are imposed on all non-citizens unless the minister is satisfied the condition is not necessary to protect the community.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

French PM says voters for far right may end up like Britons ‘who cry over Brexit’

Posted on by

Gabriel Attal cautions against backing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, which leads solidly in polls for European elections

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has said voters choosing the far right in the European elections next week risk becoming like British people who regret backing Brexit.

“Don’t be like the British who cried after Brexit,” he told RTL radio on Thursday. “A large majority of British people regret Brexit and sometimes regret not turning out to vote, or voting for something that was negative for their country.

Continue reading...

Revealed: how a US far-right group is influencing anti-gay policies in Africa

Posted on by

US anti-pornography campaigning group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda

A long-standing US anti-pornography campaigning group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda, including a governing party member who endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ laws by saying gays “should be castrated”, and a virulently homophobic founder of a “militaristic” Christian boys camp.

The revelations about Washington DC-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and its spin-offs and affiliates – based on documents, audio and video recordings and open-source materials – raise questions about its recent disavowals of its history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions, and its role in Uganda’s passage last year of laws on homosexuality which are among the most punitive and restrictive in the world.

Continue reading...

Israeli journalist describes threats over reporting on spy chief and ICC

Posted on by

Haaretz journalist was warned of ‘consequences’ if he reported on attempts by Mossad chief to intimidate ex-prosecutor

An investigative reporter with Israel’s leading leftwing newspaper, Haaretz, has said unnamed senior security officials threatened actions against him if he reported on attempts by the former head of the Mossad to intimidate the ex-prosecutor of the international criminal court.

Amid growing concern over Israel’s censorship regime, enforced by the military censor’s office and by gag orders issued by the courts, Haaretz published an article on Wednesday with blacked out words and sentences to demonstrate the scale of redactions.

Continue reading...