Australia

Strains in Australian met coal supply raise energy risks for India: Report

Strains in Australian metallurgical (met) coal supply has heightened energy security risks for India, which depends on imports for 90 pc of its needs, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The Indian government and steelmakers have begun reducing reliance on Australian met coal but India needs to go further to prevent India's steel sector from being weighed down by long-term energy security challenges, it noted. India aims to reach a crude steel production capacity of 300 million tonnes per annum by 2030. Much of this growth is driven by the blast furnace (BF) technology that uses met coal. As a result, the Indian steel sector depends heavily on imported met coal since domestic met coal does not meet quality requirements due to its high ash and sulphur content. India currently imports around 90 pc of its met coal, primarily from Australia. However, concerns are mounting over the reliability of the future supply from Austral

From Mamdani to Takaichi, 2025 emerged as defining year of political reset

Historic wins, surprise upsets, and rapid leadership changes marked 2025, as voters across major democracies demanded stability, fresh ideas and a new direction for their countries

Australia's visa backlog nears 50,000 as international students face delays

Australia's review tribunal is struggling with almost 50,000 student visa appeals, leaving thousands of international students, including many from India, facing long delays

Australia to enforce social media age limit with fines up to $33 mn

Social media platforms must report monthly how many children's accounts they close once Australia begins enforcing its 16-year age limit next week, a minister said Wednesday. Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) from Dec. 10 if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Livestreaming service Twitch was added to the list of age-restricted platforms less than two weeks ago. The Australian eSafety Commissioner will send the 10 platforms notices on Dec. 11 demanding information about the numbers of accounts removed. Monthly notices would follow for six months. The government recognizes that age assurance may require several days or weeks to complete fairly and accurately, Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club of Australia. However, if eSafety identifies systemic breaches of the law, the platforms will

YouTube finally agrees to comply with Australia's teen social media ban

The decision ends a stand-off between the internet giant and the Australian government which initially exempted YouTube from the age restriction, citing its use for educational purposes

Australia begins global drive to restrict social media access for children

While figures on the number of under-16s on social media globally are scarce, research firm EMarketer says about one in ten US users are under 18

Australian senator barred from Parliament after wearing burqa in protest

An Australian senator who is campaigning for a national burqa ban was barred Tuesday from Parliament for the rest of the year for wearing the Muslim garment in the chamber. Pauline Hanson, the 71-year-old leader of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigration One Nation minor party, was accused of performing a disrespectful stunt on Monday when she walked into the Senate shrouded in a head-to-ankle garment to protest fellow senators' refusal to consider her bill that would ban the burqa and other full-face coverings in public places. Senators suspended her for the rest of the day on Monday. In the absence of an apology, they passed a censure motion Tuesday that carried one of the harshest penalties against a senator in recent decades. She was barred from seven consecutive Senate sitting days. The Senate rises for the year on Thursday, and Hanson's suspension will continue when Parliament resumes in February next year. Hanson later told reporters she would be judged by voters at the next elect

PM Modi, Australia's Albanese meet on sidelines of G20 Summit, discuss ties

During their meeting, PM Modi and PM Albanese noted that regular high-level engagements have added significant momentum to the relationship between India and Australia

Guam hosts Australia, India, Japan, US forces in Exercise Malabar 2025

This year marks the 29th iteration of the Malabar exercise, which began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the United States and India

Australia flags rising student visa fraud, warns universities on checks

Australia has issued a fresh Student Visa Integrity Alert after uncovering fake passports used to secure enrolments, misrepresentation of EL rules, and growing fraud in South Asian markets

Meta alerts young Australians to download data before social media ban

Technology giant Meta on Thursday began sending thousands of young Australians a two-week warning to download their digital histories and delete their accounts from Facebook, Instagram and Threads before a world-first social media ban on accounts of children younger than 16 takes effect. The Australian government announced two weeks ago that the three Meta platforms plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube must take reasonable steps to exclude Australian account holders younger than 16, beginning Dec. 10. California-based Meta on Thursday became the first of the targeted tech companies to outline how it will comply with the law. Meta contacted thousands of young account holders via SMS and email to warn that suspected children will start to be denied access to the platforms from Dec. 4. We will start notifying impacted teens today to give them the opportunity to save their contacts and memories, Meta said in a statement. Meta said young users could also use the notice period to update

Turkey wins bid to host COP31 in Antalya following agreement with Australia

Although a formal sign-off is still needed, Flasberth said there was no opposition within a group of countries needed to back the decision

Australian student platform NiviCap names Justin Langer as brand ambassador

India is the second-largest source of international students in Australia, with over 130,000 Indians enrolled or continuing studies this year

Australian inmate fights Vegemite ban, says denial violates his culture

A Victorian prisoner has taken the state to court over a long-standing Vegemite ban, arguing that stopping inmates from having the spread violates his cultural rights

Blackstone's AirTrunk targets India for its next data facility: CEO

Investors are pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence services like OpenAI's ChatGPT, and the data centers required to power them

Indian couple jailed for enslaving woman in Australia hit with new penalty

An Indian-origin couple currently serving jail terms in Australia for enslaving a woman for eight years has been slapped with a fresh penalty and ordered to forfeit the proceeds from the sale of their home, police said. Kandasamy Kannan, 61, and his wife, Kumuthini, 58, have had the "proceeds of the sale of their home forfeited and ordered to pay AUD 140,000 (approx USD 90,874) in combined penalties to the state", the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a press release on Friday. An Australian court in 2021 convicted Kannan and Kumuthini for enslaving a woman from India who had entered Australia on a tourist visa and sentenced them to six and eight years of imprisonment, respectively. AFP's Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) restrained the couple's house in Mount Waverley in 2016 after they were charged with slavery offences, the release said. The house was sold for AUD 1.4 million in 2016. After paying the mortgage and sale expenses, Kannan and Kumuthi's equity in t

Indian cinema shines brighter at box office Down Under with record run

Indian films are set to cross A$39 million at the Australian box office in 2025, outperforming local cinema and becoming the third-largest after the US and UK

Australia caps foreign student intake: What it means for Indian applicants

Australia has announced a 270,000 limit on new international student commencements for 2025 and directed universities to ensure domestic students form the majority.

Adani's Kutch Copper inks deal with Australia's Caravel minerals project

Initial capital expenditure for the project is estimated at $1.10 billion, with KCL granted first rights to participate in direct equity or project-level investments during the term of the agreement

India's clean-industry pipeline hampered by financing, other delays: Report

Some projects in India have already lined up buyers for clean energy and partial funding, but are still waiting for clear rules, permits and access to power transmission