SBS News In Depth

For the first time since 2023, the US Federal Reserve board has voted to raise interest rates. The Fed also flagged further increases in borrowing costs in coming months, with new US central bank chief Kevin Warsh joining a unanimous decision that effectively acknowledges the Trump administration's inability so far to control inflation. While President Donald Trump had promised to lower prices on his watch, the combined impact of his global import tariffs, an energy shock following the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, and capital spending from the artificial intelligence boom has kept price pressures intense enough that the Fed felt it needed to raise its benchmark overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, putting it into the 3.75-to-four-per-cent range. Economist Jill Cetina of the Texas A&M University Mays Business School explains this unanimous decision and the impact it can have on the economy.

The Australian sharemarket rose 0.3 per cent as investors brace for what could be one of the most important interest rate decisions of the year for global markets. To explain, SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves spoke with Alice Shen, Portfolio Manager at VanEck.

As the government works to attract greater investment from AI companies, its commitment to strong copyright protections for Australian creatives has come into focus. An opt-out model is being considered, which would require copyright holders to take active steps to prevent their content being scraped and used to train AI. It comes as the government negotiates with big tech companies in an effort to attract investment and data centres.

As the nation celebrates seven decades of broadcast television, the industry also confronts questions about the future in an increasingly digital world. For more on this, we spoke with Dr Timothy Koskie, a post-doctoral research associate at The University of Sydney's Centre for AI Trust and Governance.

Over the weekend, an Australian athlete was pictured with faeces on her legs, after experiencing a bowel movement during a HYROX fitness competition in China. While such incidents are relatively common in high endurance sports, it has sparked heated debate and raised questions over hygiene and fairness in the competition. It's also prompted broader questions over the benefits, and the short and long term risks associated with pushing the physiological limits of the human body.