Is Australia headed for a recession? A growing number of economists think so – here’s why I’m not one of them | Greg Jericho

As I write this, I sigh and realise that despite the president of the United States dropping his threats to commit war crimes and destroy Iranian civilisation, he is always a chance to set the world on fire because it’s been more than 20 minutes since he had a Diet Coke.This, of course, is hyperbolic. I think.Economies are rather tough enough to predict without having to deal with the erratic actions of a man whose cerebrum is indistinguishable from a particularly rancid Chicken McNugget.So take all of that into consideration

Shell oil trading profits soar amid Iran war but Qatar strikes hit gas output

Shell is expected to report “significantly higher” profits from its trading desks in the first quarter of this year after weeks of market volatility triggered by the Iran crisis.The surge in energy commodity markets over recent weeks is expected to drive up trading results at Shell’s chemicals and products unit, which includes its main oil trading desk.The global oil price has climbed from about $61 a barrel in January to highs of $119 at the end of March, including some of the biggest daily price moves on record, owing to major disruptions to flows of oil and gas through the strait of Hormuz.The market volatility provides an opportunity for traders to make large profits, but also presents a risk of heavy losses.In addition to Shell’s oil trading windfall, it is also expected to report higher trading profits from its renewable energy division

Tell us: do you use AI chatbots to make decisions for you?

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are now a part of everyday life.More and more people are using them to help make decisions in their lives, like sending text messages, deciding what to cook, or navigating relationships.We want to hear about your experiences of using chatbots. Are you addicted to them? And what type of decisions are you using them for?You can tell us your experiences of using chatbots using this form.Please include as much detail as possible

Porn, dog poo and social media snaps: the ‘taskers’ scraping the internet for AI firm part-owned by Meta

Tens of thousands of people have been paid by a company part-owned by Meta to train AI by combing Instagram accounts, harvesting copyrighted work and transcribing pornographic soundtracks, the Guardian can reveal.Scale AI, 49%-controlled by Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire, has recruited experts across fields such as medicine, physics and economics – putatively to refine top-level artificial intelligence systems through a platform called Outlier. “Become the expert that AI learns from,” it says on its site, advertising flexible work for people with strong credentials.However, workers for the platform said they have become involved in scraping an array of other people’s personal data – in what they described as a morally uncomfortable exercise that diverged significantly from refining high-level systems.Outlier is managed by Scale AI, which has contracts with the Pentagon and US defense companies

Racing open to more direct protests in campaign against affordability checks

The chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, Brant Dunshea, has revealed the sport will consider more direct action protests as they continue to battle against government plans to introduce affordability tests for punters. A one-day strike last September that led to four scheduled meetings being cancelled played a pivotal role in the government abandoning the increase in tax on betting from 15% to 21%, which the BHA estimated would have cost £330m to the industry.The BHA have followed their “Axe the Racing Tax” campaign with a coordinated attempt to persuade the government to think again about affordability checks, which, if introduced, would require up to 120,000 regular gamblers to provide personal documentation in order to continue betting, according to research from the Betting and Gaming Council.Independent modelling conducted by the global accountancy firm EY has found that up to 44,000 could switch to black market operators as a result, which would cost tens of millions of pounds in racing’s betting turnover, already down £2bn since 2021.The Gambling Commission board is due to make a decision on whether to introduce the checks next month, with more than 400 racing figures including prominent trainers and MPs writing an open letter this week to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, urging her to intervene

‘We are almost incomparable’: England’s Emma Sing on challenging Kildunne and Six Nations hopes

Emma Sing has ambitions to become England’s starting full-back in the Six Nations, but insists there is no rivalry between her and Ellie Kildunne, the Red Roses’ breakout World Cup star.Sing is a Rugby World Cup winner, a multiple Six Nations grand slam champion and has lifted the Premiership Women’s Rugby trophy three times. Touting her achievements is not something the Gloucester-Hartpury back is comfortable with, but the silverware, along with her consistent club performances, are the reason why the 25-year-old is pushing for a starting place.The No 15 jersey is synonymous with Kildunne, the Harlequins player who is the face of the England team and came second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year after her electric performances at the 2025 World Cup. The players will be angling for the same position in the Women’s Six Nations, which begins on Saturday