Older Australians pressured into paying unfair robotax debts will not be compensated, government says

Finance minister Katy Gallagher says people who felt intimidated into paying back ATO debts so old they are impossible to verify will not get their money back

Older Australians who felt pressured into paying decades-old debts as part of the troubled “robotax” campaign have hit out at a government decision to deny refunds after describing the tax grab as coercive.

The federal government has disclosed it intends to amend laws that will allow the Australian Taxation Office to keep debts put on hold before 2017 on ice indefinitely, rather than extract them from future tax refunds, as was planned.

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A third of land set aside for restoration in worse state than before, Australian offset audit finds

Federal review sparks fresh warnings that biodiversity scheme is increasing risk of animals going extinct

A review of some of the areas chosen for nature restoration as part of Australia’s biodiversity offset system has found a third are in worse condition than before, prompting fresh warnings that the scheme is increasing the risk of animals going extinct.

In one instance, the majority of a site that should have provided grey-headed flying fox and koala habitat was found to be “cleared paddock with negligible foraging value”.

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Photos of Australian children used in dataset to train AI, human rights group says

Human Rights Watch found links to 190 photos of kids that were scraped off internet without families’ consent

Photos of Australian children have been included in the dataset used by several AI image-generating tools without the knowledge or consent of them or their families, research by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.

An analysis of less than 0.0001% of the 5.85bn images contained in the Laion-5B dataset, used by services such as Stable Diffusion creator Stability AI and Midjourney, found 190 photos of Australian children scraped from the internet.

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Mass purge of frozen sperm donations ordered as Queensland audit exposes misidentification risk

Health ombudsman says ‘thousands’ of sperm samples at fertility clinics are at risk of potentially devastating identification mix-ups

Queensland’s health ombudsman has ordered the destruction of thousands of frozen sperm donations, as a new report reveals 42% of all audited samples in the state were of medium or high risk of being misidentified.

The state had more than twice as many potential errors identified in audits as the next worst state, Victoria.

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Lucy Letby guilty of trying to kill baby girl | BBC News – BBC News

  1. Lucy Letby guilty of trying to kill baby girl | BBC News  BBC News
  2. A scrum of spectators and an elephant in the room during Lucy Letby retrial  The Guardian
  3. Lucy Letby: Serial killer nurse found guilty of attempted murder of extremely premature baby  Sky News
  4. British Nurse Lucy Letby, already convicted of killing 7 babies, found guilty in attempted killing  The Independent
  5. Lucy Letby guilty of trying to kill baby girl  BBC.com
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German parliament set to impose tougher fines on unruly politicians

Revised rules expected to be passed that will increase financial penalties after a rise in antisocial outbursts

Germany’s parliament is set to toughen up its fines for politicians who interrupt sessions with insults and rowdy behaviour, after a rise in what have been described as antisocial outbursts in the chamber.

Under the football match “yellow card, red card” principle, “provocative MPs and notorious recidivists” will in future receive “more effective punishments”, according to Bärbel Bas, the president of the Bundestag. She said particular attention would be paid to repeat offenders.

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New Gaza famine report reveals grim March predictions were vastly exaggerated – The Times of Israel

  1. New Gaza famine report reveals grim March predictions were vastly exaggerated  The Times of Israel
  2. How Israel destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself  Al Jazeera English
  3. Opinion | The Fulsome Picture of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis  The Wall Street Journal
  4. 'Smuggled' food and $64 peppers: Gaza's grocery stores fight to survive  Financial Times
  5. UN official admits no evidence of famine in Gaza  Israel Hayom
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Netanyahu responds to NYT report on disagreements with IDF – The Jerusalem Post

  1. Netanyahu responds to NYT report on disagreements with IDF  The Jerusalem Post
  2. Israeli Generals, Low on Munitions, Want a Truce in Gaza  The New York Times
  3. Report says IDF brass backing ceasefire even if Hamas remains in power; PM: Won’t happen  The Times of Israel
  4. NYT: Israeli Army Leaders Want Cease-fire in Gaza, Even With Hamas in Power - Israel News  Haaretz
  5. Report Claiming IDF Willing To Accept Hamas In Gaza For Ceasefire Slammed By Netanyahu, Military - I24NEWS  i24NEWS
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Big Security Coming for the 75th Anniversary 2024 NATO Summit this July 9-11. Check out the Traffic Plan, Security Maps, and more info – PoPville

  1. Big Security Coming for the 75th Anniversary 2024 NATO Summit this July 9-11. Check out the Traffic Plan, Security Maps, and more info  PoPville
  2. What NATO Means to the World  Foreign Affairs Magazine
  3. Roads close for NATO Summit in Washington, DC  WUSA9.com
  4. NATO Summit: Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski on Putin, Zelensky, and the War in Ukraine  Foreign Policy
  5. Prime Minister to travel to Washington, D.C., for NATO Summit  Prime Minister of Canada
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Dutch king swears in a new government 7 months after far-right party won elections – The Associated Press

  1. Dutch king swears in a new government 7 months after far-right party won elections  The Associated Press
  2. Netherlands Gets a New Government: What You Need to Know  The New York Times
  3. New Dutch Premier Schoof Calls for Wary Approach to China  Bloomberg
  4. Netherlands wants an opt-out from EU migration rules. Is it possible?  Euronews
  5. The Netherlands has a new government. Here are 3 things to know.  POLITICO Europe
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Ukraine says it thwarted attempted coup in Kyiv – The Hill

  1. Ukraine says it thwarted attempted coup in Kyiv  The Hill
  2. Ukraine says it thwarted a plot to overthrow the government  CNN
  3. Coup attempt thwarted in Ukraine, Security Service says, as Hungary's Orbán arrives in Kyiv for talks  NBC News
  4. Ukraine Says It Foiled Russian Plot Echoing String of Coup Bids  The New York Times
  5. Ukraine thwarts plot to overthrow government in failed coup attempt  Fox News
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France election: Third-place candidates withdraw in bid to block far right – BBC.com

  1. France election: Third-place candidates withdraw in bid to block far right  BBC.com
  2. Over 200 candidates withdraw before second round of voting – France election as it happened  The Guardian
  3. French election: Rivals unite against Le Pen's far right  POLITICO Europe
  4. Isolated Macron struggles to know what happens next  Financial Times
  5. France’s Muslims fear for their futures as Le Pen’s far right party surges  Al Jazeera English
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