SBS News In Depth

Disability advocates are urging the government to reconsider changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, ahead of a looming parliamentary vote on the proposed reforms. Aimed at cracking down on fraud and spending, the Federal Government's proposed reforms will slash NDIS spending and participation, which advocates warn could have significant consequences.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US President Donald Trump's 15-point Gaza Peace Plan, saying the Israeli military will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed. And in Iran, Iran's Revolutionary Guard says it won't reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets Tehran's demands.

The diamond industry is facing an identity crisis. Natural diamond prices have tumbled as lab-grown diamonds surge in popularity. Physically and optically identical, they can cost around a tenth as much and can now be produced at mass scale. Their rise is challenging one of the world's most successful marketing stories.

Have you ever thought about how much it costs to run a small business? New research shows the cost has risen by almost 25 per cent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and it's expected to keep increasing, topping out at 27-per cent by year's end. It comes as a surprise lift in household spending in June complicates the outlook for interest rates, ahead of the Reserve Bank's meeting next week. Reporter Natalie Poyhonen spoke to Sydney cafe owner Gerardo Barios, who serves up coffee grown from his homeland Honduras. He starts by explaining the biggest costs to his business in the last 12 months or so.

A chunk of a SpaceX rocket hurtled into the moon this week, putting renewed attention on the issue of space junk. Alan Duffy is an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology. He told SBS Reporter Josie Harvey that space is becoming dangerously crowded, and the increasing amount of debris could soon limit our capacity for space travel.