The 5% first home buyers scheme is a miserable policy failure – and the latest chapter in Australia’s housing disgrace | Greg Jericho

The story of Australia’s housing policy over the past 25 years is one of governments doing all they can to juice demand for housing while steadily reducing the supply of public housing.This trend continues as the latest housing finance figures suggest house prices are set to rise off the back of investors rushing into the market to beat the introduction of the 5% deposit scheme for first home buyers.Whether it be the 50% capital gains tax discount and negative gearing that gives investors a leg up, or first home buyer grants that try to balance that bias, the big emphasis is always on the demand side of the equation.And so the story continues with the 5% deposit guarantee for first home buyers that began on 1 October.It’s a policy that notionally makes it easier for first home buyers to get a home loan

SSE is a winner in the great grid upgrade. Who is looking out for consumers and small businesses? | Nils Pratley

It is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to upgrade the UK electricity network”, gushed Martin Pibworth, the chief executive of SSE, and you can understand his excitement. The great grid upgrade has put a rocket under his share price. SSE’s shares soared 17% on Wednesday as the group laid out plans to spend the phenomenal sum of £33bn – more than the company’s current stock market value – over the next five years.That’s terrific news for SSE shareholders, but the stock market’s enthusiasm will do nothing to quiet two big worries about the sprint to upgrade the electricity grid. Has the regulator Ofgem – under orders from the government to get the upgrade done by 2030 – had to throw gold in the path of SSE, Scottish Power and National Grid Group, the trio behind the overall £80bn network investment programme? And what does it all mean for electricity consumers – households and businesses – who will fund this upgrade through their bills?From the point of view of SSE’s shareholders, the worry was that the mighty step up in spending, including £27bn alone on electricity networks, would have to be backed by a hefty issue of new shares

Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs

Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time

Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it will begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip

Reversed burger curse and ‘deep motivations’ may help Oscar Piastri turn Formula One season around

As Oscar Piastri desperately works to rebound from his recent Formula One woes, an Australian restaurant chain is doing its part to keep his title hopes alive.After offering free burgers for every time the Australian made the podium, Grill’d burger chain has apologised for putting a “curse” on the McLaren driver.Piastri has not finished in the top three since the promotion was relaunched five races ago, with his teammate Lando Norris taking the championship lead off him.Grill’d’s Piastri 81 Burger was first put on the menu before the Australian Grand Prix in March, with Piastri’s endorsement, after he was on the podium in Italy and was leading the championship.But since then the 24-year-old driver has crashed, collided and picked up penalty points

Sinner into last four of ATP Finals after straight-sets win over Zverev – as it happened

Jannik Sinner is through to the semi-finals of the ATP Finals with a match to spare after beating Alexander Zverev.The Wimbledon champion, on home soil in Turin, triumphed 6-4, 6-3 for a fifth straight win over the German world No 3 Zverev.Sinner ended the match with 28 winners to 14 unforced errors, having dropped just eight points on his first serve.“I felt like I was serving very well in the important moments. I tried to play the best tennis possible when it mattered,” he said