Cost-of-living crunch hits spending on baby goods
Australia’s biggest specialist baby goods retailer won’t deliver on its earnings forecasts after weak sales of prams and car safety products over the past few months. Baby Bunting now expects…
Australia’s car loan trap: industry warned to be ‘fair’
Car buyers risk being exposed to financial harm when they sign up for loans offered by brokers and dealers, the market regulator says. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has…
Aussie shares edge higher on mixed inflation figures
Australia’s share market is inching higher as investors approved a cooling May inflation figure, despite an uptick in the central bank’s preferred measure. The S&P/ASX200 rose 30.4 points by midday…
A super El Niño threatens disaster. Trump is handling it recklessly | Terry Garcia
The administration interrupted data streams that are key to forecasting. These systems should not be vulnerable to political whims In 1877, North Americans experienced an unusually mild winter – it…
In Iran, Trump’s victory claims only deepened a self-made catastrophe | Sidney Blumenthal
What the US president succeeded in obliterating was any rationale he offered for going to war Before Donald Trump finally surrendered in his Iran war, he declared victory several dozen…
Reader, I married him: couples tell us how books brought them together
From book club meet-cutes to shared English Literature lectures, romance has blossomed beyond the page for these bibliophiles Dua Lipa and Callum Turner have been honeymooning in Italy, after throwing…
Quantum of Solace: a heartbroken James Bond is fuelled by rage in Daniel Craig’s most underrated 007 film
The sequel to Casino Royale was plagued by a writers’ strike, but its shaky-cam style and erratic action aligns perfectly with our hero’s fractured state of mind In the final…
‘Navigating the unknown together’: me and my idiot AI boyfriend
I believe that chatbots have no place in a decent society, and am repelled by the topic of AI in general. But could I be seduced? I received a text…
New Trump book’s authors detail how they pried loose White House secrets: ‘We nearly killed ourselves’
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the reporters behind Regime Change, were up against an administration that is ‘very good at keeping secrets’ They cracked the White House Situation Room, unearthing…
I kept fearing the worst on our family holiday. But when a real emergency happened, I learned I can cope | Lucille Wong
Worry was a pesky, uninvited visitor. I envied my partner and children who appeared genuinely switched off and relaxed Sharing the load is a column about parenting children of all…