Families

Treasurer says next week’s budget will save more than it spends. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe government is boasting of making bigger than usual savings in next week’s budget, with Jim Chalmers saying his fourth budget will have “more restraint”.The treasurer said:Responsible economic management has been a hallmark of this Albanese Government and the May Budget will be our most responsible yet.We’re getting the budget in better nick because that helps to fund the things that Australians need and deserve like Medicare, aged care and cost-of-living relief.In this Budget you’ll see more responsible economic management and more restraint from the Albanese Government. Continue reading...

New lawsuits allege employees urged company to notify authorities months before deadly Tumbler Ridge attackFamilies of seven victims of a mass shooting at a secondary school in British Columbia are suing OpenAI and the company’s CEO for negligence after it failed to alert authorities to the shooter’s troubling conversations with ChatGPT.The lawsuits, filed on Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco, allege that the violent intentions of the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, were well-known to OpenAI. Employees at the company flagged the shooter’s account eight months before the attack and determined that it posed “a credible and specific threat of gun violence against real people”, according to the lawsuit. Continue reading...

Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found at least 41m ppt in groundwater at former military facility in LouisianaDonald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning a detention facility for children and their families on one the nation’s most Pfas-contaminated sites, which also serves as a hub for the president’s deportation program.The England air force base, now called England Airpark, is a sprawling former military facility in Louisiana where Pfas levels in the groundwater have been found at least 41m parts per trillion (ppt). Continue reading...

Government advisers call for review of rules that cause loss of household income when a child takes up job training Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are abandoning valuable job training opportunities because of a little-known welfare “apprenticeship penalty” that can leave their families out of pocket by as much as £340 a week.The problem is caused by benefit rules that classify a 16-year-old apprentice as an “independent worker” who no longer requires parental support. As a result, the parents’ child benefit and child and disability elements of universal credit are withdrawn. Continue reading...

Judge in case of two families housed for years in single hotel rooms says they should have been moved within three monthsThe Home Office could face legal action from hundreds of asylum-seeking families stuck in single rooms in hotels after a judge criticised the “extraordinarily stressful” conditions in which they are expected to live.In a ruling, the deputy high court judge Alan Bates questioned why two families had been forced to live in single rooms for more than three years. He said they should have been moved to alternative accommodation within three months. Continue reading...

Struggle for justice symbolises limitations of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose hearings began 30 years agoDarkness had fallen on 27 June 1985 when Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto set off on the 150-mile drive back from a meeting of anti-apartheid activists in the South African city of Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha. They never made it home.About an hour into their journey, as the road wound north from the coast towards their home town of Cradock (now called Nxuba), the four men were pulled over by three white security police officers. They were handcuffed and driven back towards Gqeberha. Continue reading...

Bereaved parents say review of nine deaths is too narrow and will urge health secretary to add 60 more casesAn inquiry into the preventable deaths of babies in Sussex will fail to learn the lessons as it “systematically” excluded dozens of families, Wes Streeting has been warned ahead of a meeting with bereaved parents.The health secretary has ordered a review of nine infant deaths at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS foundation trust amid maternity scandals across England. However, families are calling on Streeting to expand the investigation to include more than 60 babies who died between 2019 and 2023 and might have survived with better care. Continue reading...