Changes in Help to Buy housing scheme will make ‘most first home buyers’ eligible, Labor says

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Minister announces increase in both income and property price caps as part of 2025 budget

Labor will increase the income and price caps for its signature Help to Buy scheme as part of next week’s budget, which it has promised will deliver cost-of-living relief.

Under the shared equity scheme, the commonwealth provides first home buyers with 30% of the purchase price of an existing home, or 40% for a new home.

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UNICEF calls on the Taliban to lift ban on girls’ education as new school year begins in Afghanistan – The Associated Press

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  1. UNICEF calls on the Taliban to lift ban on girls' education as new school year begins in Afghanistan  The Associated Press
  2. As new school year starts in Afghanistan, almost 400,000 more girls deprived of their right to education, bringing total to 2.2 million  UNICEF
  3. A mother’s dreams, a daughter’s fight  The Campus
  4. UN Tells Afghan Rulers: No Peace and Prosperity Until They Reverse Bans on Women and Girls  U.S. News & World Report
  5. Voices of Afghanistan Interview Series: 'We, Afghan girls and women, will call for freedom with every breath'  JURIST
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Bob Brown urges Greens to punish Labor at election if Albanese amends law to protect salmon farming

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PM’s pledge to protect Tasmanian industry will weaken laws already failing to protect natural sites and at-risk species, environmentalists say

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has urged the minor party not to preference Labor ahead of the Liberal party in Tasmanian seats at the upcoming election if the Albanese government legislates to effectively exempt salmon farming from national environment laws.

Conservationists have sharply criticised Anthony Albanese’s pledge that he will rush through legislation next week to protect the salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, from the potential results of a long-running legal review.

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Hegseth to fly to the Philippines and Japan in first visit to Asian treaty allies at odds with China – The Associated Press

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  1. Hegseth to fly to the Philippines and Japan in first visit to Asian treaty allies at odds with China  The Associated Press
  2. Pentagon chief to visit Philippines for security talks, envoy says  Defense News
  3. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Travel to Hawaii, Guam, Philippines, and Japan  Department of Defense
  4. Hegseth’s Manila visit ahead of Balikatan signals strong US-Philippines ties  South China Morning Post
  5. Hegseth Skips South Korea Visit as Leadership Vacuum Takes Toll  Bloomberg
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The obscure Jimmy Lai ruling that exposed the erosion of Hong Kong’s rule of law

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The moves that barred the media mogul’s choice of lawyer are immune from legal challenge, giving the national security committee what one expert called ‘the powers of a police state’

The dwindling freedom in Hong Kong over the past few years has been described as “death by a thousand cuts”. Critics have been jailed, elections have been transformed into “patriots only” affairs, journalists have been harassed and hundreds of thousands of people have left.

This week, an obscure legal development has, in the eyes of some legal experts, inflicted another cut on the city’s once revered legal system.

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Melbourne teenager charged with murder after machete attack

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Police allege victim, 24, was ambushed by up to 10 men and stabbed to death near Marriott Waters shopping centre on 14 March

An 18-year-old has been charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of a man by an alleged machete-wielding group amid plans to ban the weapon.

Timothy Leek was stabbed to death near the Marriott Waters shopping centre in Melbourne’s south-east on the night of 14 March.

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Reeves to raise spectre of Liz Truss to persuade Labour MPs to accept cuts

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Chancellor to tell party she is making steep cuts to avoid similar fallout to that which followed 2022 mini-budget

Rachel Reeves will raise the spectre of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget in the lead-up to next week’s spring statement as she tries to persuade her Labour colleagues to accept the steepest departmental cuts since austerity.

The chancellor will tell her fractious party she has decided to cut public spending rather than increasing borrowing because of the risk of a similar fallout to that which followed the then prime minister’s disastrous fiscal statement in 2022.

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Scientists discover dozens of deep-sea creatures beneath giant iceberg – Interesting Engineering

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  1. Scientists discover dozens of deep-sea creatures beneath giant iceberg  Interesting Engineering
  2. Another giant iceberg breaks free leading to 'amazing' seabed find  Oceanographic Magazine
  3. A huge iceberg broke off Antarctica. What scientists found under it startled them.  The Washington Post
  4. Stunning Antarctic Sea Creatures Discovered after Iceberg Breaks Away  Scientific American
  5. Turns Out, The Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Hiding An Abundant Ecosystem  AOL
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IAF intercepts Houthi missile that triggered sirens in Jerusalem, surrounding areas – The Jerusalem Post

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  1. IAF intercepts Houthi missile that triggered sirens in Jerusalem, surrounding areas  The Jerusalem Post
  2. Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility  Reuters
  3. IDF intercepts Houthi missile that triggered sirens across central Israel, Jerusalem  The Times of Israel
  4. Houthis declare Ben-Gurion Airport ‘no longer safe’ after renewed Gaza fighting  The Jerusalem Post
  5. Missiles from Yemen target Israel despite US threats  Al Jazeera English
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Falconer ‘extremely close’ to catching hawk attacking Hertfordshire villagers

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Bird of prey’s violent reign in Flamstead could soon come to an end, according to parish council

It stole two woolly hats from the head of a 91-year-old pensioner. It clawed a jogger’s scalp and left him reeling. It is said to swoop in from behind without making a sound, has a penchant for tall men’s heads and – so far – has evaded capture.

But the violent reign of the Flamstead hawk, which has made men in the Hertfordshire village of Flamstead afraid to go out without covering their heads, may soon be at an end.

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Suzanne drives eight hours to get ADHD medicine from a specialist. Australian GPs say they need more prescribing powers

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Exclusive: Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners urges Albanese government to increase range of medicines they can prescribe

Every three months, Suzanne Grobke makes an eight-hour round-trip to access the ADHD medicine her 12-year-old daughter depends on.

“My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD when she was three and we see a paediatrician in Sydney because it was up to a two-year wait to see someone regionally,” she said.

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