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  • In Pakistan’s mediation to end Mideast war, China may hold the key

    In Pakistan’s mediation to end Mideast war, China may hold the key

    As diplomatic envoys from the United States and Iran prepare to convene in Islamabad for high-stakes negotiations aimed at ending the ongoing Middle East conflict, official insiders and regional analysts agree: China’s behind-the-scenes influence cleared the path for the talks, and it will remain indispensable to securing a durable, long-term truce.

    Pakistan has earned international acclaim – and no small amount of surprise – for pulling off a last-minute temporary ceasefire between the warring parties, an achievement that looked all but impossible as late as Tuesday night. But senior Pakistani officials emphasize that China’s quieter, less publicized contribution was just as critical to securing the preliminary deal as Islamabad’s own frontline efforts.

    “By ceasefire night, hope was all but gone,” a senior anonymous Pakistani official with direct knowledge of the closed-door negotiations told Agence France-Presse. “It was China that stepped in and convinced Iran to sign on to the preliminary truce. Our work was central, but we were stuck without a breakthrough – that only came after Beijing’s intervention with Tehran.”

    This account echoes comments made by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who shortly after announcing the two-week ceasefire on social media confirmed to AFP that China had been the key factor in persuading Iran to join the negotiating table.

    The planned Islamabad talks have sparked fragile new optimism for ending a conflict that broke out in late February, when Israel and the U.S. launched strikes against Iran, prompting retaliatory attacks from Iran across the Persian Gulf and targeting Israeli cities. The war has already killed thousands of people and sent shockwaves through the global economy.

    Pakistan, which shares deep cultural and religious ties with Iran and has long-standing close personal relations between its leadership and former U.S. President Trump, was tapped to serve as the neutral facilitator for the talks. To reach a lasting peace deal, Islamabad will have to guide the two rival sides through a minefield of intractable issues, including the reopening of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz and the future status of Iran’s nuclear program.

    According to a second anonymous diplomatic source, Pakistan has assembled a specialized team of technical experts to support negotiations on navigation, nuclear affairs, and other core contentious topics. As Islamabad lays the groundwork for the talks, the source and a cohort of regional experts and former officials agree that all attention remains focused on China’s upcoming role.

    “Iran has specifically requested that China act as a guarantor for any final deal – Iran needs a trusted third party to hold up its end of the agreement,” the source explained. The main alternative, Russia, remains bogged down in its ongoing war in Ukraine and was unacceptable to Western powers, particularly the European Union, leaving China as the only viable option.

    Beijing already maintains exceptionally close ties to both Islamabad and Tehran. For years amid crippling U.S.-led sanctions on Iran, China has been Tehran’s largest trading partner. In Pakistan, China has poured tens of billions of dollars into large-scale infrastructure projects under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, a partnership so close the two countries refer to each other as “ironclad brothers.”

    Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a former Pakistani senator who previously chaired the upper house’s defence and foreign affairs committee, noted that Pakistan and China have coordinated closely on ceasefire efforts from the very start of the hostilities. “Given that Iran does not trust the Trump-Netanyahu duo,” Sayed said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “China’s role as the ultimate guarantor will remain irreplaceable for reaching any final peace agreement.”

    Weeks ago, after Pakistan’s foreign minister held de-escalation talks with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, he traveled directly to Beijing to coordinate strategy, after which China publicly expressed its full backing for Islamabad’s mediation efforts. More recently, Beijing has also stepped in to help ease Pakistan’s own escalating border conflict with Afghanistan, hosting peace talks between Afghan government delegates and Pakistani officials in Urumqi following weeks of cross-border fighting.

    Hours before the preliminary ceasefire was announced, China also joined Russia in vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have called for the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – a move widely viewed as a significant gesture of goodwill to Tehran, which had imposed an effective blockade on the strategic waterway since the war began.

    Unlike Pakistan’s high-profile mediation, China has intentionally avoided the public spotlight, only reiterating that it has worked behind the scenes to encourage an end to hostilities. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson noted that Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held 26 phone calls with counterparts from regional and world powers, while Beijing’s special Middle East envoy has shuttled repeatedly across the conflict zone to facilitate talks.

    Even so, analysts and officials remain uncertain whether China will agree to take on a formal, public guarantor role in the final peace deal. “China has its own strategic considerations,” the second diplomatic source said. “It does not want to be publicly dragged into this conflict,” even as it continues to play an outsized behind-the-scenes role.

    The negotiations themselves face steep odds to resolve the massive gaps between the two sides’ positions. One major unresolved sticking point is the inclusion of Lebanon in any permanent ceasefire: Pakistan’s prime minister and Iran have both insisted Lebanon must be covered by the truce, a demand Israel has rejected. Israel, which Pakistan does not formally recognize, has continued to carry out deadly airstrikes targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon, while the U.S. has announced it will host separate bilateral talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington next week.

    “These negotiations are incredibly complex and sensitive,” the second source added. “For all sides to reach a consensus, everyone will have to make painful compromises and difficult concessions.”

  • ‘Love triangle’: Man allegedly killed ex-lover’s husband before dumping body

    ‘Love triangle’: Man allegedly killed ex-lover’s husband before dumping body

    More than two decades after a 34-year-old man was found dead in a New South Wales river, his alleged killer has gone on trial in the NSW Supreme Court, with prosecutors laying out a dramatic case rooted in romantic jealousy, tangled forensic evidence, and a long-unresolved love triangle.

    Gofal Baziad, 54, a resident of western Sydney, has pleaded not guilty to a single charge of murder for the death of Jason Palmer, who disappeared in early February 2004 and whose body was recovered three weeks later from the Nepean River at Menangle. Opening the Crown’s case before a jury on Friday, lead prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC outlined the alleged motive: Baziad, who had been romantically involved with Palmer’s wife Renny during a separation between the couple, killed Palmer to rekindle his relationship with her after she chose to reconcile with her husband in late 2003.

    Court documents and prosecution arguments detail that at the time of Palmer’s death, he and his wife had an on-again, off-again marriage. The pair separated in 2002, during which time Renny Palmer began a relationship with Baziad, before reconciling in 2003. When Palmer asked his wife to make a final choice between the two men, she selected Palmer, a decision Baziad outwardly accepted, according to Hatfield.

    The prosecution alleges Baziad carried out the killing in the late hours of February 6, 2004, or early the next morning at Palmer’s rented unit on Barremma Road, Lakemba. According to the allegation, Baziad first struck Palmer over the head with a heavy glass object, before stabbing him multiple times in the back, hip, and chest. He then wrapped Palmer’s body in a blue-green sleeping bag, weighed it down with two large boulders secured with a thin yellow rope, and transported the corpse to the Nepean River to dump it, Hatfield told the court.

    Palmer was last seen leaving his wife’s Belfield home on February 6, and Renny Palmer reported him missing several days later after repeated failed attempts to contact him. Kayakers discovered his wrapped body in the Menangle section of the Nepean three weeks after his disappearance. Crucially, prosecutors say forensic evidence links Baziad directly to the killing. The yellow rope used to tie the boulders to Palmer’s body matches fragments of identical yellow rope recovered from a garden shed at Renny Palmer’s Belfield home – a shed that Baziad accessed the day before the killing, when he borrowed Palmer’s wife’s red Ford station wagon, claiming he needed to move items out of his own unit. The sleeping bag used to wrap the body also came from the same camping gear stored in that shed, the court heard.

    Forensic testing of the borrowed station wagon turned up another damning piece of evidence: trace blood stains on the rear passenger seat, footwell carpet, and the car’s boot. A DNA swab taken from the boot’s blood stain matched Jason Palmer’s genetic profile, Hatfield told the jury, leading the Crown to argue Baziad used the vehicle to transport Palmer’s body from his Lakemba unit to the river for disposal.

    Beyond physical evidence, the prosecution laid out a pattern of behavior it says supports the allegation against Baziad. Hatfield told the jury Baziad has a well-documented history of violent jealousy toward any man that became romantically involved with Renny Palmer. After the pair began a relationship following Palmer’s death – a relationship that lasted until 2018, during which the couple lived together in Indonesia before returning to Australia – Baziad attacked another man Renny Palmer was dating outside a Gold Coast hardware store in 2018, shortly after his own relationship with her ended. “The Crown case alleges that evidence supports that the accused had these two tendencies: firstly, to be jealous about Renny Palmer and any male that she might be romantically involved with,” Hatfield said. “And the second tendency is to act violently, when he believed Renny Palmer is romantically involved with a person other than himself.”

    Prosecutors also noted that Baziad left Australia for Singapore just six weeks after Palmer’s disappearance, on March 28, 2004, and did not return to the country until 2009. At the time of his departure, he told investigators he was leaving to close a business deal and would return to assist with the probe, but his departure still came immediately after Palmer’s killing. Notably, Renny Palmer faces no accusations of any wrongdoing in connection with Palmer’s death, and is scheduled to take the witness stand to give evidence next week, the court confirmed. Baziad himself was only arrested and charged with murder earlier this year, 20 years after the killing, closing a long-running cold case for NSW Police.

    In her opening address to the jury on Friday, Baziad’s defense barrister Madeleine Avenell SC pushed back against the Crown’s case, arguing that the evidence presented is too weak to secure a conviction beyond reasonable doubt. Avenell noted that there are substantial points of disagreement between the prosecution and the defense over both the admissibility of evidence and how it can be interpreted, and urged jurors to keep the burden of proof in mind throughout the trial. “My submission to you is going to be this – you won’t be able to be positively satisfied of the ultimate question that is put to you in this trial. Which is: has the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was Mr Baziad who is the person responsible for Mr Palmer’s death?” Avenell told the court. “Ultimately, that is the thing you should have at the forefront of your mind.”

    The trial against Baziad is ongoing at the NSW Supreme Court.

  • High Court hears sentence appeal for teen who killed Queensland mum Emma Lovell

    High Court hears sentence appeal for teen who killed Queensland mum Emma Lovell

    A fight for justice for a murdered British woman has reached Australia’s highest court, as her grieving husband and the Queensland government push to reverse a controversial sentence reduction that has sparked public and legal debate.

    On Boxing Day 2022, Emma Lovell, a 40-something British expat, was fatally stabbed in the chest during a violent home invasion at her property in North Lakes, a suburb north of Brisbane. Her husband Lee, who was also attacked and injured in the break-in, has spent years fighting to ensure the perpetrator serves the full penalty handed down by the original sentencing judge.

    At the time of the attack, the killer was 17 years and 8 months old, too young to be tried as an adult under Queensland’s pre-existing laws. He pleaded guilty to charges of armed burglary and murder in 2024, and was handed a 14-year prison sentence. Under the state’s Youth Justice Act at the time, juvenile offenders are required to be released after serving 70% of their total sentence, a requirement that was upheld by the original sentencing judge Justice Tom Sullivan. Sullivan ruled the brutal killing qualified as a “particularly heinous” offense, rejecting arguments for special leniency despite the killer’s age, early guilty plea, difficult childhood, and claims of remorse.

    That ruling was overturned months later when the Queensland Court of Appeal accepted the defense’s argument that the original 14-year sentence was “manifestly excessive”, cutting the non-parole portion of the sentence from 70% to just 60%. That decision triggered an unprecedented push for appeal, with Queensland’s new Liberal National Party government joining Lee Lovell to challenge the ruling in an extraordinary hearing before the High Court of Australia in Canberra.

    Outside the courtroom on Friday, Lovell told reporters he aims not just to reverse the sentence cut, but to establish a lasting legal precedent for future cases. “I hope to get my wife’s killer’s sentence back to 70 per cent at least,” he said. Beyond that, he added, the case could set a precedent holding appeal judges accountable when they depart from original sentencing rulings. Lovell also criticized what he called the inherently one-sided nature of the current justice system: while the perpetrator was permitted to appeal his sentence, the victim’s family has no equivalent right to appeal a lenient ruling. He added he will continue his fight for as long as it takes to secure justice for Emma, leaving behind two young daughters who will grow up without their mother.

    Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, who appeared alongside Lovell at the High Court, noted the case is an extraordinary legal step. “This is a trip we wish we never had to do,” she said. “However, here we are today at the High Court of Australia to try to preserve some sort of justice that Lee and his family have been dished out up in Queensland.” Frecklington emphasized that the tragedy has resonated across the entire state, not just with Lovell’s grieving family. She added that it is extremely rare for the High Court to grant an Attorney-General leave to appeal a criminal sentencing decision. Pointing to policy change spurred by Lovell’s death, Frecklington noted that the newly elected Liberal National Party government introduced “adult crime, adult time” laws shortly after taking office, which would see the offender sentenced to life imprisonment if the crime were committed today.

    The High Court appeal hinges on technical legal questions about how lower courts can intervene in original sentencing rulings. Lawyers for the Queensland government argued the Court of Appeal overstepped its authority and misapplied key legal tests when it reduced the non-parole period. Gim Del Villar KC, the state’s lead counsel, told the court that the Court of Appeal’s finding that the original judge “ought” to have found special circumstances to justify a reduced sentence was inconsistent with existing legal standards that limit appellate interference in sentencing decisions. Del Villar noted that the core disagreement between the original ruling and the appeal court was just a 10% difference in the non-parole period, making the appellate court’s intervention even harder to justify.

    Counsel for the young killer rejected the state’s arguments, arguing the Court of Appeal acted well within its authorized bounds. Andrew Hoare KC acknowledged that the wording of the appellate court’s ruling was not perfect, but said the conclusion that the original sentence was unjust fell well within the powers intermediate appellate courts exercise on a regular basis. He added there was no clear legal error on the face of the appellate court’s ruling to justify the High Court overturning the decision. At the time of publication, the High Court has reserved its decision, with no timeline announced for a ruling.

  • NAB hikes fixed home loan rates for the second time in two weeks

    NAB hikes fixed home loan rates for the second time in two weeks

    In a sudden shift reshaping Australia’s competitive home lending market, National Australia Bank (NAB) — one of the country’s dominant big four banks — has rolled out its second fixed-rate home loan increase in just a fortnight, a move that has stripped it of its position as the cheapest provider of fixed home loans in the nation.

    The latest adjustment, announced this Friday, comes exactly 14 days after NAB’s previous rate hike. The new round of increases adds 0.30 percentage points to every fixed-term home loan product the bank offers. Following the repricing, NAB’s lowest available fixed rate now sits at 6.34% for a one-year term. For borrowers seeking longer-term rate security, the cost climbs even higher, with a two-year fixed rate product reaching 6.39%.

    This market shift has cleared a path for competitor Westpac to claim the title of the big four’s lowest fixed rate provider. Westpac currently offers a two-year fixed home loan with a rate of 6.14%, undercutting NAB’s new pricing by a notable margin.

    NAB’s decision to raise rates twice in such a short window is far from an isolated move, it is part of a broader market response to shifting monetary conditions in Australia. Lenders across the sector have been adjusting pricing after the Reserve Bank of Australia’s March cash rate decision, as well as widespread expectations of further rate increases on the horizon.

    All three of the other major banks — ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and NAB itself — have already forecast an additional 0.25 percentage point rate hike when the RBA meets next month. Forecasts are not uniform across the industry, however: Bendigo Bank Chief Economist David Robertson predicts the RBA will hold rates steady in May, but expects a third rate increase for 2026 to come in August. Robertson attributes this projected trajectory to ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which he says is creating a domino effect that keeps global and domestic inflation pressures elevated.

  • Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers 2026: Great Britain teenager Mika Stojsavljevic has pulled off a huge upset

    Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers 2026: Great Britain teenager Mika Stojsavljevic has pulled off a huge upset

    The opening day of the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers delivered one of the tournament’s earliest upsets, as 17-year-old British wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic defeated world No. 56 Australian rising star Talia Gibson in straight sets on Friday. The final scoreline of 7-6(0), 7-5 marked a career-defining victory for the teenager, who entered the matchup ranked 219 places below her opponent at world No. 275.

    Gibson, who turned heads at the 2024 Australian Open after advancing to the second round of the main draw, entered the match as the clear favorite. The 21-year-old Australian showed flashes of the dynamic talent that has pushed her up the global rankings in the last 12 months, but a consistent string of unforced errors ultimately derailed her campaign. From the opening game, Gibson struggled to find consistent control of her groundstrokes, giving away cheap points that shifted momentum to her young opponent early.

    The first set unfolded with an early exchange of breaks, as both players tested each other’s serve consistency before holding for the rest of the set to force a tiebreaker. It was here that Stojsavljevic demonstrated poise far beyond her 17 years, racing out to a 4-0 lead that Gibson never recovered from. The young Brit’s towering, powerful serve proved to be the decisive edge of the match: she landed four aces to Gibson’s single one, and closed out the opening set with a blistering ace down the T to seal the tiebreaker 7-0.

    Stojsavljevic carried that momentum into the second set, immediately putting pressure on Gibson’s first service game by jumping out to a 0-40 advantage. Though Gibson fought back to hold serve and keep the set level, she could not resolve her unforced error issue or break through Stojsavljevic’s dominant service game. A critical unforced mistake from Gibson at 2-1 allowed Stojsavljevic to claim the decisive break, putting her up 3-1 in the set.

    Speaking to broadcast commentators after the upset, former world No. 4 Jelena Dokic highlighted the mental dynamic of the match, noting that Gibson was still adjusting to the pressure of competing as a tournament favorite, while Stojsavljevic had nothing to lose and could play without restraint. Gibson mounted a late comeback push, and held five break points to take the lead in a tense marathon service game at 5-5. Even as fatigue began to show in the young Brit’s movement, she relied on her powerful serve to escape danger and hold serve, before closing out the match to claim the straight-set victory.

    The upset win gives Great Britain an early advantage in their Billie Jean King Cup qualifying tie against Australia, setting the stage for the remaining singles and doubles matches to determine which nation advances to the next stage of the team competition.

  • ‘Heart is bloody breaking’: Qld MP reveals veterans have handed in medals after Ben Roberts-Smith arrest

    ‘Heart is bloody breaking’: Qld MP reveals veterans have handed in medals after Ben Roberts-Smith arrest

    The recent high-profile arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated current veteran accused of multiple war crimes, has sparked an extraordinary wave of disillusionment among former Australian service members, with dozens of veterans handing back their service medals in protest against what they describe as government betrayal and systemic failure of the nation’s support for military personnel.

    Queensland Liberal National Party MP Phillip Thompson, a veteran who served in East Timor and Afghanistan and was injured by an improvised explosive device during his deployment, has publicly opened up about the gut-wrenching moment he received a collection of returned medals from at least two separate veterans. In a raw, emotional social media post shared with his constituents, Thompson said his “heart is bloody breaking into a thousand pieces” over the gesture, which lays bare the deep-seated anger and hurt roiling Australia’s veteran community in the wake of Roberts-Smith’s arrest.

    Last week, Australian federal police formally charged Roberts-Smith with five counts of murder for alleged war crimes committed during his deployment to Afghanistan. The charges include one count of joint commission of murder and three counts of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring murder. The arrest comes nearly four years after major Australian outlets first published the war crime allegations, and capped off a failed 2021 defamation lawsuit Roberts-Smith brought against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Times over their reporting.

    What makes the return of medals so striking is what the gesture represents for the veteran community. Thompson stressed that the medals handed to him are far more than decorative metal and ribbon. “They are years of service, sacrifice, mateship & moments most will never fully understand,” Thompson wrote. “They represent those who answered the call, who carried the weight of this country on their shoulders & who lived with the consequences long after the uniform came off. These are not political talking points. This is human. This is real. This is the hurt being carried by people who gave everything & are now left wondering where they stand in the country they served.”

    A handwritten note accompanying one set of medals, shared publicly by Thompson on his social media channels, laid bare the depth of the veterans’ broken trust. The note author, who is a second-generation veteran, wrote that they had lost “any trust I had in my government” and added, “I feel my service and my father’s service was for nothing.” Thompson noted that the pain woven into these notes has shaken him, saying the accounts highlight a widespread collapse of confidence and a pervasive “sense of betrayal” across the veteran community.

    This wave of medal returns is not isolated to Thompson. Another Queensland MP, Bob Katter, also received a request from a serving member to return his own set of medals to Canberra, according to a separate social media post. The short, blunt letter read: “Bob, give my medals back to Canberra. I no longer want them after seeing the way they treat veterans.” The returned medals sent to Katter included five distinct honors: an Australian Active Service Medal, the Defence Force Service Medal, the International Force East Timor Medal, the National Medal and an Australian Defence Medal. It remains unclear whether the letter was signed by the sender.

    As Roberts-Smith prepares to face court over the war crime charges, the protest gesture from veterans has drawn national attention to the unresolved grievances that continue to divide the Australian public and the veteran community over how military service, wartime accountability, and veteran welfare are addressed by the federal government.

  • ‘Can he come next week?’: Craig Bellamy responds to Gehamat Shibasaki rumours as Storm look to rediscover their ruthless edge

    ‘Can he come next week?’: Craig Bellamy responds to Gehamat Shibasaki rumours as Storm look to rediscover their ruthless edge

    As the Melbourne Storm fight to snap a three-match losing skid marked by defensive collapse, an unexpected recruitment rumor has emerged: the NRL club is setting its sights on premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos centre Gehamat Shibasaki to fill key 2027 roster gaps.

    Storm head coach Craig Bellamy admitted he had no prior warning of the reported club interest when questioned by reporters on Friday morning, but a playful quick quip revealed he would jump at the chance to add the representative-level talent to his squad immediately. The potential move to lure Shibasaki to Melbourne is slated to be formally discussed during a scheduled recruitment meeting set for Friday afternoon, Bellamy confirmed.

    Shibasaki, who has become one of the league’s most in-demand young outside backs after breakout seasons with the Broncos, earned his first representative caps for both Queensland and Australia in 2024, and helped lead Brisbane to a premiership title last year. His current contract with the Broncos is up after the 2026 season, and the club already faces an uphill battle to retain his services after his rapid rise to stardom: he is projected to command a substantial salary increase in his next deal, sparking interest from multiple top NRL clubs.

    For the Storm, a move for Shibasaki solves a growing 2027 roster problem. The club is already set to lose outside backs Nick Meaney and Will Warbrick to rival clubs in two seasons’ time, and recently missed out on the high-profile signing of St George Illawarra star Zac Lomax, leaving a clear gap in their attacking depth that Shibasaki could fill.

    “I don’t actually know about that,” Bellamy told reporters early Friday. “We’re having a recruitment meeting today so I don’t know what’s going to come up there, but I haven’t heard that [the Shibasaki interest].” When pressed on a potential timeline, he joked: “Can he come next week or the week after? Anyone would be welcome at this stage.”

    Right now, however, recruitment is a secondary priority for the 2026 Storm. Bellamy’s side is reeling after a brutal two-week stretch that saw them concede a combined 78 points across three straight losses, including a 50-point blowout at the hands of the competition-leading Penrith Panthers last round. Their defensive performance has fallen well short of the club’s typical high standards this season, and Bellamy pulled his squad for a grueling training session earlier this week to address the issue.

    The coach pinned the recent slump directly to a lack of individual accountability, rather than systemic problems, saying: “We’re relying on the bloke next to you instead of getting your job done. So there’s a real focus on not worrying about the bloke next to you and just getting your job done.” Bellamy added that he is expecting a marked shift in attitude this week, warning that without a change in approach, the Storm will continue to post underwhelming results.

    This weekend presents the Storm with an ideal opportunity to turn their season around, as they prepare to host the New Zealand Warriors in front of a sold-out home crowd. Melbourne holds an extraordinary recent record against the Warriors, having won 17 consecutive matchups against the Auckland-based side. But Bellamy brushed off the historical advantage, noting that past form means nothing for a side that has struggled so badly in recent weeks.

    “We’re not worried about what happened five years ago or two years ago,” he said. “We’ve got to get back to reality, and that’s what’s happening now. What’s happening now ain’t good so we need to improve that this week.” Bellamy pointed out that in the two matches before the Panthers defeat, the Storm gave up late leads they should have closed out, before being completely outplayed by Penrith. “You don’t like any of those situations happening, but they have so we’ve got to deal with it. It’s time for everyone to pull their finger out and get their job done.”

  • New Jersey city spurns data center as defiance spreads

    New Jersey city spurns data center as defiance spreads

    Just 65 kilometers outside the bright skyline of New York City, an overgrown vacant lot dotted with construction rubble sits quietly between a working railway line and a cluster of residential homes in New Brunswick, New Jersey. What was once slated to become a sprawling multi-building data center complex for Florida-based Amzak Capital Management, built on the grounds of a shuttered automotive plant, now stands as an unlikely symbol of grassroots people power — and a rallying cry for community resistance spreading across the United States.

  • ‘Kick up the a**e I needed’: Bronson Xerri vows to see out his Bulldogs deal in raw interview after NRL recall

    ‘Kick up the a**e I needed’: Bronson Xerri vows to see out his Bulldogs deal in raw interview after NRL recall

    For Canterbury Bulldogs centre Bronson Xerri, the past four weeks have been one of the most turbulent stretches of his recent NRL career – a period clouded by demotion, swirling exit rumours and public speculation about his future at the club. Now, back in first grade following a stint in the NSW Cup, the 25-year-old has broken his silence on the controversy, framing his reserve-grade drop as the reality check he needed to reignite his focus on the team.

    The drama began immediately after Canterbury’s opening-round win in Las Vegas, where Xerri was sensationally dropped from the top squad in a move that shocked fans and pundits alike. Conflicting reports emerged in the aftermath of the decision, with some claiming the demotion stemmed from poor on-field form, others pointing to questions over his attitude, and many suggesting the shift came after Xerri pushed back against playing on the right edge following captain Stephen Crichton’s move to the left side of the pitch.

    Over two matches in reserve grade, Xerri turned out for the Bulldogs’ feeder side, notching an early try against the Canberra Raiders – but off the field, speculation about his desire to force a contract release dominated rugby league headlines. Canterbury head coach Cameron Ciraldo initially made clear he was disappointed by how Xerri reacted to the demotion, but in recent days has shifted to praise for the 25-year-old’s turnaround.

    A further point of confusion emerged on Good Friday, when Ciraldo brought on halfback Sean O’Sullivan to replace the injured Crichton rather than turning to a specialist centre like Xerri, leading many to assume Xerri had fallen completely out of the club’s favour. It has since been revealed that the decision was rooted in club medical staff’s initial assessment that Crichton’s injury was not severe enough to require a permanent positional shift, not a snub to the out-of-favour centre.

    Xerri made his return to first grade last Thursday, where the Bulldogs pulled off a stunning upset win over reigning premiers Penrith. In post-match comments, he acknowledged the past month had been a difficult stretch, but pushed back on the widespread reports of a rift, saying his only focus has always been doing what is best for Canterbury.

    “It’s been tough,” Xerri told reporters after the game. “But as long as the boys within the four walls and the staff know my intentions here, I’m happy. Whatever was reported was out of my control. As long as the team and all the boys knew my intentions with everything, that’s all that matters.”

    When asked point-blank whether he had ever requested a release from the final year of his current Bulldogs contract, Xerri declined to comment, saying “I’m not going to say anything, sorry.” But he was open about reflecting on the past few weeks, noting that the current turbulence pales in comparison to the four-year doping suspension he served after a positive drugs test in 2019 – an experience that taught him how to navigate professional adversity.

    “I went home and asked some hard questions about myself and came back, got the opportunity tonight and tried to take it with both hands,” he said. “I have a really good support system with my family. I’ve been through something similar with this – much worse to be fair – so I know how to handle these things.”

    While the exact root cause of his initial demotion remains unconfirmed, Xerri said the drop to reserve grade was a necessary wake-up call that exposed his own complacency in training. “I just got a bit comfortable in myself. I wasn’t really giving it my all at training. So it was that kick up the arse I needed,” he explained. “I’m a true believer in that everything happens for a reason. Me and ‘Ciro’ had some tough conversations, but I’ve got nothing but love and respect for Ciro and this club.”

    The stint in reserve grade also reinforced what he stands to lose, he added: “When it’s all gone, you don’t realise what you’ve got. When I was playing NSW Cup, I was like ‘This is not where I belong, this is not where I want to be’. I came into training and just put my best foot forward.”

    Xerri thanked his teammates for checking in on his mental health throughout the stretch, saying “it was good to be back where I belong” after his stint in the lower grade. Against Penrith, he set up a try on his preferred left edge, but stressed he is willing to adapt to any role the coaching staff needs, even playing on the right side when Crichton returns from injury.

    “I definitely feel more natural on the left,” he admitted. “But I am capable of doing the job on the right. Ciro has spoken about that. I’ve always said to Ciro that I’ll do what’s best for the team, so wherever he wants to put me, that’s where I’ll play.”

    With one year remaining on his current contract, Xerri reaffirmed his intention to see out the full deal at Belmore. For his part, Ciraldo said he was thrilled with Xerri’s performance and maturity in his first game back, highlighting an underrated improvement that flew under the radar for spectators.

    “The most pleasing thing which no one would have seen is how well he was communicating out there. The players in there were all talking about that, and that was something he needed to go and work on,” Ciraldo said. “People in the stands might not see that or value that as much as we do, but it’s awesome to see that he’s brought that into his game.”

  • Bendigo Bank signals third interest rate hike for 2026 won’t be until August

    Bendigo Bank signals third interest rate hike for 2026 won’t be until August

    In a provocative deviation from consensus economic forecasts among Australia’s largest financial institutions, Bendigo Bank has staked out a contrarian position, predicting a third Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cash rate increase will land in August 2026 rather than the May timeline widely expected by the country’s biggest banks. The unusual forecast comes alongside the regional lender’s strong quarterly profit results that have lifted its stock, even as it cuts hundreds of roles to align with new long-term tech partnerships.

    Bendigo Bank’s chief economist David Robertson outlined the forecast in a public statement Tuesday, confirming that the bank joins the broader market in expecting the RBA to hold interest rates steady at its upcoming May monetary policy meeting. But unlike rival national lenders ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank, which all project a 25-basis point hike at the May gathering, Robertson said persistent economic pressures tied to global energy market disruptions will force the RBA to act three months later.

    The RBA last lifted the cash rate by 25 basis points at its March meeting, pushing the benchmark rate to 4.1% amid ongoing efforts to cool stubbornly high inflation. Robertson noted that the RBA’s May decision will hinge on how policymakers balance the risks of supply-demand imbalances stemming from the ongoing Middle East conflict against the threat of tipping the domestic economy into a technical recession.

    The call for a delayed rate hike, Robertson explained, is rooted in two competing forces shaping Australia’s current economic trajectory: a surprisingly resilient domestic labour market that has kept consumer spending steady, and growing inflationary risks spurred by geopolitical tension in the Middle East. With key global shipping chokepoint the Strait of Hormuz facing ongoing disruption amid regional conflict, Bendigo Bank warns that constrained energy supplies and sustained elevated commodity prices will create a domino effect that keeps inflation above the RBA’s 2-3% target range. Robertson added that all global energy shocks carry inherent risk of stagflation, a toxic combination of slow growth and persistent rising prices that would force central bank action.

    The interest rate forecast was released alongside a separate major announcement from Bendigo Bank this week, confirming the lender would cut a significant share of its workforce after locking in multi-million-dollar long-term partnership deals with global technology services firms Infosys and Genpact. The partnerships run for seven and six years respectively, with the bank stating the agreements will bring specialized expertise in process optimization and delivery, boost long-term productivity, and strengthen the bank’s enterprise risk management frameworks.

    Despite the controversy of workforce cuts, Australian equity markets reacted positively to the bank’s updates. Bendigo Bank ranked among the top-performing stocks on the Australian Securities Exchange following the announcements, climbing 8.41% in intraday trading. The regional lender also delivered better-than-expected financial results for the March quarter, reporting cash profit of $138 million that beat consensus market forecasts by 12%, reinforcing investor confidence in the bank’s strategic shift.