Midday News Bulletin 1 May 2025
TRANSCRIPT:
South Australia's parliament to debate the use of artificial intelligence and explicit deepfakes;
Ukraine agrees to a crucial minerals deal with the US;
Game one tonight of this year's women's State of Origin series. South Australia's Parliament is debating laws that would ban the use of artificial intelligence to generate explicit deepfake content. The bill is a collaboration between Upper House MLC Connie Bonaros and the state government that seeks to outlaw violent or sexually explicit deepfake images, audio or video. State attorney-general Kyam Maher says the state's criminal code already covers the distrubution of deepfakes - but this legislation would ensure content is captured that is wholly created by AI. He says authorities have estimated as much as 95 percent of deepfakes are non-consensual porn, and that 99 per cent of the victims are women. Ukraine and the US have announced an economic deal after Donald Trump called for Kyiv to compensate Washington for billions of dollars in assistance to help repel Russia's invasion. The US President had earlier announced he wanted access to Ukraine's rare earth materials as a condition for continuing US support in the war, but talks had stalled after a tense Oval Office meeting between US and Ukrainian leaders. Ukraine's economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko has confirmed an agreement has been signed in Washington. U-S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also confirmed the agreement, saying on X it will be good for both countries. "This partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine to unlock Ukraine's growth assets, mobilise American talent, capital, and governance standards that will improve Ukraine's investment climate and accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery." A 16 year old has been arrested over the fatal shooting of three people in a town in Sweden. Police say the teen is one of several people being interrogated as part of the investigation into the deaths of three people at a hair salon in Uppsala, a day before the city was to celebrate a spring festival that traditionally draws some 100,000 visitors. Sweden has suffered from a wave of gang-related violence for more than a decade that has included an epidemic of gun violence, but Uppsala Police chief Erik Akerlund says police believe these shootings are not part of any gang activity. 'Our assessment is that this is an incident that is not connected to a risk to the public but an isolated incident. But that in itself does not mean that we are only investigating this crime, but we are working forward and sideways so that, in the end, many of the crimes that we are investigating also turn out to be connected." New research shows that working from home is paying off for those who avoid the commute regularly. Analysis from the Committee for Economic Development says people who work from home are saving an estimated $5300 a year, and that productivity is also greater for home based employees, with those workers able to complete nearly 20 per cent more hours than those in the office. CEDA Economist James Brooks says they have found flexible working arrangements have increased workplace participation by more than four per cent post COVID. He says that is especially true for primary carers, people with disability, and single parents. "The likelihood that they're in a job at all has actually increased so this is a function of a tight labour market and demand for workers. But it's hard to ignore that working from home has given more people opportunities. So they're able to find more jobs which are suited to them." New data shows that India is set to overtake Britain as the leading country of origin for overseas-born Australians as soon as this year. The leading country of origin in Australia has traditionally been the U-K, but new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows migration from there is trending downwards. Its annual data on migration confirms that more Australians were born overseas [[8.58 million, or 31.5 per cent of the total population measured at June 2024]] than at any point since federation. Behind the rise is a huge uptick of Indians calling Australia home, with 916,330 Indian-born migrants recorded by June 2024. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has laughed off a surprise endorsement from jailed U-S reality star Joe Exotic during a morning round of commercial radio interviews. Exotic had taken to his Instagram page to urge Australians to vote for Mr Albanese, in hopes that would lead to the PM lobbying for his early release from prison. But the P-M has told Nova Perth he hadn't thought about Exotic. "I think what I'll be concentrating on with President Trump will be more about tariffs and jobs and the economy ... I was wondering whether he thought, you know, because we got Julian Assange released, basically, which was a good thing." Game one of this year's women's State of Origin series gets underway tonight with the Maroons hosting the Blues at Lang Park. Indigenous backrower and Deadly Choices Ambassador Shaylee Bent will line up as the 18th player for New South Wales after recovering from off-season surgery. She has told NITV she's worked hard to come back from injury.
"I struggled with an AC dislocation last year. It's the very first injury I've ever had. So for me it was a bit of a struggle but I have had so much support around. And the girls have been really great. Yeah, just excited to back here and be back in the squad."
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12 minutes ago
- West Australian
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West Australian
42 minutes ago
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Shake-up company tax mix to boost investment, productivity, experts tell government
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