Flights at major British airports have been disrupted by a technical fault at air traffic control provider NATS, the ‌latest in a series of failures that renewed questions about the resilience of Britain’s aviation infrastructure.

The cancellation of hundreds of flights and delays to hundreds more renews scrutiny of NATS three years after a flight-plan processing failure caused even more ‌widespread disruption.

As passengers waited for information in departure halls across the country on Tuesday, airlines questioned whether the country’s air traffic control system was fit for purpose.

NATS said at 1834 GMT (4:34am AEST Wednesday) the issue, which had impacted its flight data processing system, had been resolved. It had earlier said that “safety was not compromised”.

“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights,” NATS said on X.

The traffic control provider later said in an update that it would take time to recover from the disruption, adding that “this has ‌been a very complex ‌recovery and has created difficulties for the ⁠whole aviation network”.

CEO Martin Rolfe told Sky News that NATS hadn’t “fully done the investigation” to find the reason behind the technical issue that ​caused the disruption.

“We don’t have an idea yet of exactly what went wrong,” Rolfe said.

Close to a thousand flights were disrupted, including to and from the largest UK airport, Heathrow.

Heathrow said arrivals to the airport had been suspended for the remainder of Tuesday, and while departures had resumed, the disruption was expected to continue.

Data on flight-tracking platform FlightAware said some 490 departures were delayed at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol as of 1518 GMT (1:18am AEST Wednesday).

Some 525 arrivals at those six airports were either cancelled or delayed, the website data shows.

At Heathrow, 38 of 661 scheduled arrivals had been ⁠cancelled or were unable to operate, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. British Airways was the most affected carrier at the ‌airport, cancelling 16 of 333 ​scheduled departures.

“The severity of the issue means there will be a significant knock-on impact for customers and colleagues,” British Airways said in a statement.

Britain’s aviation regulator said it would expect NATS to share a full report of the incident.

with AP

When conveyancer Shelley Baker asked her client a standard question on settlement day, she didn’t expect it to save them nearly $200,000.

Ms Baker, who works for Nest Legal in Melbourne, casually asked if the seller had provided their bank details to the real estate agent.

The seller said no, despite the fund transfer being just hours away.

“That immediately raised some concerns for us, so we asked the client to call the real estate agent immediately to confirm and provide their bank account details,” Ms Baker told AAP.

“Someone pretending to be our client had already emailed bank account details to the agency.”

Worse still, the scammer had called that morning to chat to agency staff, mentioning the transacting parties, the property address, nearby landmarks and even their favourite local cafe.

“Thankfully, because our client had called, we were able to stop that transaction from taking place, probably about two hours before settlement was due,” Ms Baker said.

“Which resulted in around $200,000 not going to a scammer.”

While many scams depended on intercepting emails, fraudsters are increasingly mining social media for buyers and sellers, or using artificial intelligence to draft professional-looking communications and clone voices.

“The traditional warning signs people associated with scams are no longer always present,” Ms Baker said.

A recent survey from property settlement company PEXA found more than two in five Australians couldn’t detect any scam markers in a test email.

A staggering 99 per cent couldn’t spot a fraudulent email address even when told the document was a scam.

Property settlement scams are listed by Scamwatch as payment redirection scams.

They cost Australians $166.8 million in 2025, up more than nine per cent from 2024.

In response, auctioneers often take deposits at the property after the auction, while conveyancing firms and real estate agents increasingly use secure platforms with multi-factor authentication like PEXA Key or Securexchange for settlement transactions.

On the buyer and seller side, the prevention measures were decidedly low-tech.

“It doesn’t matter what you get in writing, ring up and verbally confirm those details using a number you saved on your phone,” Ms Baker said.

“Walk into the real estate agent, speak to the receptionist, Google the firm on online, and grab the contact details that way.”

Discussing exactly what to expect was also key, PEXA chief information security officer Graham Fairley said.

“Having those conversations up front and agreeing around that communication with your conveyancer or a property professional is really a worthwhile approach,” he told AAP.

Any efforts to rush the transaction should be viewed with extreme caution.

“Be mindful of the sense of urgency within that is contained within the comms itself,” Mr Fairley said.

“Property professionals won’t be injecting a sense of urgency – it is not the standard way of communicating.”

Pledges to find a middle path on social media algorithms and regulating online spaces for children have raised questions from experts.

Labor has unveiled its digital duty of care to enforce minimum standards on social media platforms and give users the ability to choose what they see on their online feeds.

The government has avoided calling the algorithm measures either an opt-in or opt-out, instead landing on a “neutral choice” down the middle.

It’s a move which RMIT social media expert Caitlin McGrane said risked pleasing no one and confusing everyone.

“Asking people to opt-out with a pop-up is an interesting approach,” she told AAP.

“There is an awful lot of research that has found that those pop-ups that ask you about cookies on websites, people find them very annoying, and they also don’t really work.

“They give this kind of illusion of control.”

Echoing calls from other experts and federal crossbenchers for an opt-in system for the algorithm, Dr McGrane is cautiously optimistic despite the lack of immediate detail.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the bill would protect children from harmful content including the promotion of eating disorders, pornography or glorifying crime.

For adults, Ms Wells said only illegal content would be prohibited.

The bill reinforces an underlying assumption that people are no longer affected by eating disorder or extreme misogyny content once they turn 18, Dr McGrane argued.

“And I just don’t know that that’s true,” she said, noting concern over the enforcement of two separate content standards.

“Without collecting vast amounts of personal data or using age assurance technologies that are still fairly unproven as to their efficacy, how are they going to be able to determine whether somebody is a child or an adult?”

The coalition has raised particular concerns with the powers given to the communications minister to determine what constitutes content of “serious harm” for young people.

But Dr McGrane said it would be an improvement on the current system.

“I would rather have a minister in Australia, who is accountable to the Australian public, make a decision about what is harmful, as opposed to an American billionaire.”

The legislation is likely to face the scrutiny of an inquiry in coming months.

Australians are “furious” about inflation and it will take the nation years to fully get on top on higher post-pandemic living costs, the Reserve Bank’s deputy governor says.

Ahead of the central bank’s meeting later this month on interest rates,  Andrew Hauser said inflation remained too high despite Australia’s economy broadly doing well.

“People are furious about inflation,” he told ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday night.

“Everywhere I go, I hear cost, cost, cost, inflation, inflation, inflation, and that’s our responsibility. We have to put that right.

“I understand why. It’s unfair. It hits people. It hits people on low incomes. It damages price signals. It makes the job of companies difficult.”

But he didn’t agree that an interest rate hike was inevitable, with the cash rate currently sitting at 4.35 per cent.

“Inflation is too high and that’s why we raised interest rates three times at the beginning of this year,” Dr Hauser said.

“The question now, frankly, for us is have we done enough or is more needed.”

Dr Hauser pointed to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the global boom driven by artificial intelligence and weakness in the economy’s supply potential as behind higher inflation.

“That is a very lasting and pervasive issue that is a function of the pick-up in inflation after COVID and will take years for us to fully resolve,” he said.

The RBA has a target band of two to three per cent for inflation, which it expects to reach by the end of next year.

Both headline and trimmed mean inflation came in above the RBA’s forecasts in July.

Dr Hauser said falling house prices weren’t a key factor in the bank’s forecasts for inflation, noting house prices were still three per cent higher than a year ago, and almost 50 per cent higher than the beginning of this decade.

“While house prices play a role in the economy, they’re not really as big as … global growth trends, productivity, the risk environment globally,” he said.

A data centre heavyweight has conceded the industry must work harder to assuage Australians’ concerns about the artificial intelligence boom or risk US-level community upheaval.

International and domestic data centre and AI leaders have descended on Melbourne for a three-day summit as state and federal governments continue to develop guard rails.

Bans and moratoria on data centres are spreading across the globe, including in US states and municipalities ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

The world is entering a “fourth industrial revolution”, with Australia uniquely placed to take advantage, NEXTDC chief executive and managing director Craig Scroggie said.

“But we have some bottlenecks that must be solved,” he told the crowd at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Tuesday.

“Social licence challenges and the questions about whether we should develop data centres could cause us to fundamentally make one of the biggest mistakes that we can make and that is to pause.

” … to not take advantage of this opportunity because of the fear and uncertainty of the headlines that have been imported from the US around data centres potentially using our energy assets or our drinking water.”

ASX-listed NEXTDC operates 17 data centres across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Its 225MW site at Footscray in Melbourne’s inner west has faced opposition from some residents over noise, light and pollution concerns.

Local state MP Katie Hall wrote to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny in April to share community concerns about the company’s application to expand the centre, which she said was located within 500m of more than 800 homes, a kindergarten, maternal and child services and a local creek.

The Victorian Greens have since moved to introduce legislation to impose a moratorium on “hyperscale” AI data centre approvals across the state but it was blocked by Labor government MPs, including Ms Hall.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Anthony Carbines has been working on a policy paper, with announcements expected in the very near future.

“We need to make sure that … there’s a community licence and a social licence for them (data centres),” Premier Ben Carroll told reporters last week.

No community concerns should be dismissed and industry figures must educate the public on the benefits of digital infrastructure for jobs and economic growth, Mr Scroggie said.

“At no point in time in history have we ever had to explain how it works, and now the single most important thing we have to do is try to take the heat out of the conversation,” he told AAP.

“We can’t tell people who are yelling at the industry that AI is bad when they fear job loss or they fear displacement that they should just be calm.”

While acknowledging residents didn’t want big data centres in their backyard, NVIDIA’s Jared Carl said labour shortages were a major barrier to deployment.

A solution has been to build more of the facilities off site, reducing deployment time from 18 months to two years to seven to nine months.

“We’re still seeing payoffs of data centres being built between 18 and 24 months,” the technology giant’s global AI data centre lead said.

“That is a really fast time to get a return on your investment. After that, it’s just profit.”

In late August, national cabinet met to discuss consistent mandatory standards for data centre energy, water and land use.

Queensland and the Northern Territory appeared to receive a carve-out from mandates for centres to provide their own renewable energy, allowing for sites in those jurisdictions to be powered by coal and gas.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen later clarified states and territories will have to prove they can find a cheaper source of power if they want to comply with the proposed federal laws.

The Reserve Bank might have to raise interest rates if inflation is higher than expected as oil prices surge back towards $US100 a barrel.

More attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz drove Brent crude above $US97 a barrel, which will seep into domestic petrol and diesel prices and broader cost pressures for businesses.

Russel Chesler, VanEck’s head of investments and capital markets, expects oil prices to stay higher for longer.

“The continuing Middle East conflict is showing no signs of a resolution and that will leave the RBA with no choice but to increase rates at its meeting later this month,” he said.

RBA assistant governor Sarah Hunter did little to downplay expectations the bank would lift interest rates again if inflation continued to exceed its forecasts.

“I think the board has been pretty clear, and the staff as well. I’m certainly myself pretty clear that inflation is top priority right now,” she told the AFR Property Summit in Sydney.

“Inflation is above target and has been for some time.

“We are concerned about inflation and if there is a sense that inflation is going to be stronger than we think in the context of our forecast, then the board may well have to raise interest rates to tackle that.”

Both headline and trimmed mean inflation came in above the RBA’s forecasts in July.

Ongoing price pressures from the Middle East conflict have been taking their toll on businesses, particularly in manufacturing, construction and retail, NAB head of Australian economics Gareth Spence said.

Business conditions took a tumble in August, with profitability falling 10 points to the lowest level since the pandemic, NAB’s monthly business survey showed on Tuesday.

How much businesses are able to pass through those costs to consumers will help determine how sticky inflation will remain going forward.

And it will depend on how willing households are to keep spending.

Expectations of more rate rises caused sentiment among home owners to collapse in September, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index showed.

Confidence plummeted 14 per cent among mortgage holders in the month, compared to a 0.9 per cent fall among renters.

”Interest rate concerns had a clear negative impact on consumers with a mortgage,” Westpac’s head of Australian macro-forecasting Matthew Hassan said.

Overall, the consumer sentiment index declined 5.2 per cent to 84.4, as interest rate expectations climbed 7.3 per cent.

Despite economists forecasting the housing downturn to deepen as high interest rates combine with federal budget tax changes, only 32 per cent of consumers expected prices to decline over the next 12 months, with 42 per cent expecting a rise.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham expects nationwide house prices to fall 13 per cent peak to trough, which would be “the largest housing price correction in modern history”.

Already, $34.1 billion has been wiped off Australian property values in the three months ended June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported.

The 0.3 per cent decline pales in comparison to the 12.3 per cent increase since the start of 2025.

The total value of Australian dwellings is still a whopping $12.7 trillion, following decades of strong growth.

As Housing Minister Clare O’Neil points out, a low-income young couple is half as likely to own their own home in Australia than they were 45 years earlier.

“That tells us that what’s going on with housing in Australia is not just about a roof over people’s heads,” she told the AFR Property Summit.

“This is fundamentally changing what aspiration means in our country.”

The government is fending off accusations of pork barrelling in a half-billion-dollar, invitation-only scheme that disproportionately funded local infrastructure in Labor seats.

Labor-held electorates pocketed almost three-quarters of the $560 million allocated under the Major and Local Community Infrastructure Program.

Marginal electorates or seats where Labor was competitive received $66.5 million more than what they would proportionally receive, the Centre for Public Integrity found.

Centre chair and ex-judge Anthony Whealy said $493 million went to seats where Labor was competitive, compared to $66 million where it was not.

“These figures ring alarm bells,” he said.

“When approximately three-quarters of a $560 million community grants program goes to the government’s own electorates, serious questions have to be asked.

“The problem is that the process makes it impossible for the public to have confidence that merit, rather than political advantage, determined who got access to the money.”

Among the grants handed out was $6 million for Marrickville Golf Club, which falls in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inner-Sydney electorate.

Another $16 million was splashed on a swimming pool in Bega, in the must-win bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro, held by Labor frontbencher Kristy McBain.

Under the scheme, entities could only apply for funding after receiving an email invitation in an opportunity classed as “closed non-competitive”, according to the program guidelines.

That means grants were assessed against the program’s bespoke selection criteria rather than against the merits of rival applicants.

Those criteria included the projects’ social and economic benefits, their viability and sustainability and the capacity of the applying entities to carry them out.

In opposition, Labor heavily criticised the coalition government’s community sport infrastructure scheme, which party representatives said unfairly favoured coalition-held seats.

That controversy, which became known as “sports rorts”, led to then-sports minister Bridget McKenzie resigning from cabinet after she failed to disclose membership of a gun club that received funding.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said a comparison between the Labor grants program and the coalition scheme were unfounded, denying the 2025 election scheme amounted to pork barrelling.

“I don’t think you’re comparing apples and apples,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

“What we’ve done … is consistent with best practice.”

Mr Mulino pointed to past findings from the Australian National Audit Office on closed, non-competitive grant schemes designed to fulfil election promises.

The selection criteria used for such schemes has been labelled “sound”.

Greens senator Steph Hodgins-May called on Mr Albanese to justify the funding choices before an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the 2025 election.

“He needs to personally explain why $6 million went to the Marrickville golf course in his electorate. This simply does not pass the pub test,” she said.

“We see Labor rightly, when in opposition, condemning Scott Morrison’s government for the sports rorts, but now that they’re in government, apparently there is a new set of rules.”

Independent MP Helen Haines called for an overhaul of federal grants programs, labelling the scheme another attempt at pork barrelling.

Her electorate of Indi was among the 45 that were not invited to participate in the scheme, despite a golf club in the area badly needing upgrades.

Labor’s infrastructure fund was divvied up under commonwealth grants rules, a non-binding set of guidelines.

The rules favour competitive, merit-based selection processes that are open, transparent and provide equitable access to grants.

“Political parties should not be able to use taxpayers’ money to buy votes,” Ms Haines said.

“Community need should come before political need.”

Outside the gates of Israel’s Canberra embassy, a lonely saxophone played. 

A group, dressed in red to symbolise blood, passed between them a white, tightly bound cloth, designed to look like the dead body of a baby. 

Images of some of the 20,000 children killed in Gaza were strung across the lawn. 

About 80 protesters gathered outside the embassy on Tuesday to demand an independent investigation into the death of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom.

She was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces in April 2024 alongside other humanitarians while driving to deliver basic aid to the Gaza Strip. 

The findings of an Israeli investigation, announced on World Humanitarian Day in August, suggested there was no suspicion of criminal misconduct surrounding her death despite a previous finding there had been failures in how the attack was carried out. 

No charges were laid.

“I’m losing my faith in humanity when there is no justice,” Karuna Ratna Bajracharya told the crowd, mourning the life of his wife’s oldest friend. 

“I can see that when our leaders fail us, when justice fails, when international law fails.” 

The protesters called for Israeli ambassador Hillel Newman to be expelled from Australia. 

Dr Hillel was summoned by Foreign Minister Penny Wong for a dressing down after the investigation findings were released. 

He said at the time he felt deep sorrow for Ms Frankcom’s family and the loved ones of other victims, but refused to apologise for the strikes on aid vehicles. 

The Israeli government did not grant Australia access to audio recordings of the strikes.

Senator Wong condemned the report and Dr Newman’s response, saying it fell far short of what was acceptable. 

“(I) have directed Australia’s ambassador to Israel to convey our views directly to Israel as the Australian government considers next steps,” she told media at the time. 

“Australia is outraged the Israeli government has decided not to pursue criminal proceedings against those responsible for killing Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues.” 

Protesters say the response did not go far enough.

Mr Bajracharya, a lifelong Labor voter, said he was disheartened by the government’s sustained ties with Israel. 

“They have let me down dramatically. They have let down Zomi Frankcom,” he said. 

A letter to the minister in late August, understood to have been written by Australians previously onboard a Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, demanded an independent investigation into the Israeli Defense Forces’ actions. 

The group had not yet heard back, Jewish pro-Palestinian activist Anny Mokotow told the crowd. 

“We have to fight against this as much as possible. We do it for Zomi Frankcom and those who have died senselessly with her – for their bravery, generosity and selflessness,” Ms Mokotow said before reading out the letter.

It is understood Senator Wong’s office was continuing to consult directly with Ms Frankcom’s family.

A government update is expected in coming months. 

Senator Wong’s office was contacted for comment about the letter and negotiations with Ms Frankcom’s family.

Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on ‌US goods have begun as Prime Minister Mark Carney increases economic pressure on his country’s biggest trading partner ‌after negotiations collapsed, intensifying an 18-month-old trade war.

The counter-tariffs cover $US20 billion ($A28 billion) of US goods, with duties ranging from 15 per cent to 50 per cent ‌across products from steel and furniture to clothing and electronics.

The dollar-for-dollar retaliation marks an escalation in the dispute between the neighbouring countries, and US and Canadian officials have traded blame for scuttling a deal that seemed close to fruition two weeks ago.

The rising tensions create uncertainty about the broader US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, which is up for annual reviews after US President Donald Trump declined to extend it ‌for another decade.

“What ‌we are worried ⁠about is an escalatory spiral,” said Michael Harvey, executive director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance ​and a member of Carney’s advisory committee on bilateral US economic relations.

“But at the same time, we totally understand that the prime minister needs to find areas of leverage,” Harvey said.

Trump’s tariffs implemented in August hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, covering $US20 billion ($A28 billion), or five per cent, of Canadian exports to the US

According to Canadian and ⁠US government data, Canada has shipped almost 68 per cent of total exports to ‌the US ​this year, out of which roughly 80 per cent moved duty-free due to exemptions under the USMCA pact. Protections under the agreement have provided ​the domestic economy some ‌resilience.

The new tariffs, imposed under a Depression-era US law, do not allow Ottawa to exercise USMCA exemptions.

Concerns about the USMCA’s ​future have fuelled uncertainty about investment and growth, as Canada wages a trade war against an economy 13 times its size.

Polls show Carney has broad support from Canadians, but it could disappear within months as the consequences of the ​trade war ​sink in.

Just 20 per cent of ​Americans approved of Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, a Reuters/Ipsos poll ‌found.

Carney said last week his government was ready to sign a trade deal that benefits both countries.

Trump threatened last month to raise US tariffs on all cars, trucks and automotive parts from Canada to 50 per cent starting January 1, and signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America.

Australia and Solomon Islands appear to be on the brink of a new security treaty after promises of almost $1 billion worth of additional aid from Canberra.

The promised spending includes free education – a signature promise of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale – security improvements and small grants tied to every electorate.

The pledges were revealed in a leaked WhatsApp message sent by Solomon Islands Deputy Prime Minister Francis Sade, who was forwarding an update from the Australian high commission to the Pacific nation.

The revelations come after a week of high drama in Solomon Islands politics – and a sliding doors moment for Canberra-Honiara relations – when a no-confidence motion in Mr Wale’s leadership was tabled and withdrawn.

In the message, the commission, led by High Commissioner Jeffrey Roach, wrote it hoped “both countries can hold steady to seize this opportunity and lock this in ahead of the November budget session”.

At the time of the message, Mr Wale still faced the motion of no confidence, which was made by one of his own ministers.

Mr Wale had travelled to Palau to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum only to swiftly travel home to ensure his coalition held strong.

In his own message, which appeared aimed at any wavering MPs in his coalition, Mr Sade asked them to “look at the bigger picture and weight the situation against the positive momentum we have built”.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is attempting to upgrade relations – and most importantly, security co-operation – in the region as Canberra vies with Beijing for influence in the Pacific.

Australia has already landed defence treaties with Papua New Guinea and Fiji in recent months.

Australia has also signed treaties with Tuvalu and Nauru under Mr Albanese, and, alongside Solomon Islands, is currently negotiating a fresh pact with Tonga.

Progress on enhancing ties with Honiara had been slow under previous leaders but fast-tracked since Mr Wale took power in May.

Those treaty talks have proved fruitful, according to the leaked messages, which were verified by Mr Sade.

Australia’s pledges – totalling $985 million – include $142 million to fund free education, $48 million towards “visa improvements and security requests” and $95 million in grants.

Those grants are cleaved off per electorate as part of a “community partnerships” fund, which allows locals to apply for Australian aid to build small-scale infrastructure like halls, toilet blocks, water tanks and schools.

Aid distribution in this way ties Australia to on-the-ground outcomes in every part of Solomon Islands, and, Canberra hopes, compels support for the security treaty from each MP.

Some in Solomon Islands argue this is Australia effectively buying support for its security treaty, a characterisation Mr Sade rejects.

In a statement provided to AAP, the deputy prime minister said the messages were “a routine update” and “never intended for political expediency”.

“If there is good progress that benefits our country, why should petty politics be used to disadvantage or undermine such welcoming news?” he said.

Pacific Minister Pat Conroy would not be drawn on the length or substance of the Australia-Solomon Islands talks.

“Negotiations are under way – consistent with all of Australia’s bilateral treaty negotiations, we will not comment on the details of the negotiations until the treaty is signed,” he said.