Even amid rising economic uncertainty, now is not the time to hug your job

After all the employee protests over the past few years – the “great resignations”, the “quiet quittings”, the “bare-minimum Mondays” and “coffee badgings” – we have finally arrived at “job hugging”.Amid all the economic uncertainty and the rising costs of everything, people aren’t feeling as confident as they once were. Instead of slacking off while you hunt for something better, everyone’s scared about losing their jobs. With all the news about big corporate layoffs and the ominous and still-undefined threat of AI, it’s understandable that people are hugging their jobs.A recent report from job search site Monster

Treasury considering changes to Australia’s contentious tobacco excise, as calls grow for a freeze

Experts say a freeze on the federal government’s contentious tobacco excise should be considered, after the Treasury revealed it was modelling the impacts of cigarette prices on demand amid a booming black market.Lachlan Vass, a research manager at the e61 Institute, said the Treasury’s examination of “price elasticity” and demand for tobacco would be a necessary step to costing potential reforms to the excise.Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, and Mark Butler, the health minister, have previously rebuffed any suggestion that reducing the sky-high cost of cigarettes was the solution to curbing the black market trade, which has ballooned over the past five years and smashed a $17.8bn hole in the budget since 2020-21.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailBut when asked at Senate estimates last week why a cut to the excise couldn’t be considered as part of a wider strategy to curb the illegal tobacco trade, Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, left the door open to a change in excise policy

Makers of AI chatbots that put children at risk face big fines or UK ban

Makers of AI chatbots that put children at risk will face massive fines or even see their services blocked in the UK under law changes to be announced by Keir Starmer on Monday.Emboldened by Elon Musk’s X stopping its Grok AI tool from creating sexualised images of real people in the UK after public outrage last month, ministers are planning a “crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI”.With more and more children using chatbots for everything from help with their homework to mental health support, the government said it would “move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law”.Starmer is also planning to accelerate new restrictions on social media use by children if they are agreed by MPs after a public consultation into a possible under-16 ban. It means that any changes to children’s use of social media, which may include other measures such as restricting infinite scrolling, could happen as soon as this summer

California’s billionaires pour cash into elections as big tech seeks new allies

Tech billionaires are leveraging tens of millions of dollars to influence California politics in a marked uptick from their previous participation in affairs at the state capitol. Behemoths such as Google and Meta are getting involved in campaigns for November’s elections, as are venture capitalists, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and Palantir’s co-founders. The industry’s goals run the gamut – from fighting a billionaire tax to supporting a techie gubernatorial candidate to firing up new, influential super political action committees (Pacs).The phenomenon squarely fits the moment for the state’s politics – with 2026 being the year that Politico has dubbed “the big tech flex”.Gavin Newsom, California’s tech-friendly governor who’s been quick to veto legislation that cramps the sector’s unfettered growth, is reaching his term limit

GB chiefs hail greatest Winter Olympics day after super Sunday delivers two golds

Team GB chiefs have hailed Britain’s greatest day at a Winter Olympics after celebrating two gold medals, in the mixed snowboard cross and mixed team skeleton in Milano Cortina.Super Sunday started with Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale storming to a surprise victory in Livigno, with Bankes dramatically overtaking the French team with four turns remaining to take mixed snowboard cross gold.Less than five hours later, Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston added a second British gold in the mixed team skeleton in Cortina after Weston overturned a 0.30sec deficit following Stoecker’s run to beat Germany by 0.17sec

Winter Olympics 2026: Weston and Stoecker cap golden GB day; Strøm wins women’s ski jump – as it happened

Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston take a bow! They have won the first ever gold medal in skeleton mixed relay at the Winter Olympics to put Team GB on three gold medals in total at the Games.Stoecker’s time of 1min 00.77, (the fourth best of the women’s runs) gave Weston a fairly chunky +0.3sec disadvantage but the men’s Olympic champ smashed the Germain pair into second with a 58.59, the best of the men’s times for a total time of 1:59