By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Wednesday’s budget update will project a deficit of $36.8 billion for this financial year, which is $5.4 billion better than forecast in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) issued before the May election.
The update projects deficits that are slightly better in every year over the forward estimates than forecast at the election. Cumulatively, the deficit is $8.4 billion better than over the four years to 2028-29 than PEFO.
The government earlier revealed the update will contain $20 billion in savings.
Despite critics attacking the level of federal…
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By Ashleigh Percival-Borley, PhD Candidate in the Department of History, Durham University
Germany has unveiled plans to introduce voluntary military service. From January 2026, all 18-year-old men will be required to complete a questionnaire asking if they are interested and willing to join the armed forces. Women will not be required to fill out this form.
Across Europe, the pattern is similar. In countries where military service is compulsory such as Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland and Ukraine, women’s enlistment remains voluntary.
The German government’s move, which has sparked…
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By Irina Rets, Research Fellow, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University
The government has recently released its national youth strategy, which promises better career advice for young people in England. It’s sorely needed: for teenagers today, the future of work probably feels more like a moving target than a destination. Barely three years after ChatGPT went mainstream, the labour market has already shifted under young people’s feet.
In the US, job postings for roles requiring no degree have dropped by 18% since 2022, and roles requiring no prior experience by 20%. Administrative and professional service jobs – once key entry points for school-leavers…
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By Andrew Crome, Senior Lecturer in History, Manchester Metropolitan University
Why not wrap up in a warm blanket, grab a mulled wine and settle down to consider the end of everything this Christmas?
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By Rachel Scarfe, Lecturer in Economics, University of Stirling
There are nearly one million young people in the UK who are not in employment, education or training (so-called Neets). After falling in number during the 2010s before the pandemic, this cohort of 16 to 24-year-olds has grown from 750,000 only six years ago. This is a worrying shift, for several reasons.
Research shows that a spell of unemployment at a young age can have outsized negative effects on the young person. Workers who were unemployed for even a short time at a young age have to contend with…
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By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University
Cranberries contain compounds that may help prevent urinary tract infections and support heart and brain health, but supplements are not always the best option.
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By Amnesty International
All forced returns of refugees and asylum seekers to Afghanistan must immediately end, Amnesty International said, as the latest UN figures revealed that Iran and Pakistan alone have unlawfully expelled more than 2.6 million people to the country this year. About 60% of those returned are women and children. Thousands of others have been deported from Turkey and Tajikistan. The figures come as the Taliban intensify their attacks on human rights with devastating effect particularly on women and girls, and the country remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, which has been further exacerbated by…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image US President Donald Trump signs an Al initiative in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington DC, December 11, 2025. © 2025 Alex Brandon/AP Photo Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that proposes to challenge and dismantle a range of “cumbersome” artificial intelligence (AI) laws at state and city level in the US and replace them with a not yet defined national AI regulatory framework.The move is supposedly an effort to “sustain and enhance the United States’ global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for…
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By Tony Roberts, Digital Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
Between 2016 and 2024 there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41 African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend in the continent, according to a new open access source book. It has provided the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use blackouts – written by African researchers.
The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher…
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By Josep Bonsoms, Postdoctoral researcher and professor, Universitat de Barcelona
The Arctic landscape is changing at an unprecedented rate. In addition to rising temperatures, climate change is causing episodes of extreme melting, which occurs when ice losses that previously took weeks or months occur over just a few days.
These increasingly frequent events are altering the normal dynamics of ice loss. They are profoundly changing the state of snow and ice, which are the most vulnerable elements of the polar climate system.
Snow accumulation during winter no longer compensates for summer losses. This annual balance has been negative for decades, but…
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