SBS News In Depth

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Stephen Halmarick from Economists Unchained and Alice Shen from VanEck to find out what today's official GDP data really says about the economy, implications for interest rates, and how the sharemarket reacted.

Teenagers are more concerned than ever about the cost of living, according the annual Mission Australia Youth Survey of more than 17,000 young people. Financial worries have jumped significantly in survey results in recent years, with climate change falling as an issue of concern, and mental health still having a large impact.

The United States faces mounting accusations of extrajudicial killings after launching lethal airstrikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the waters of the Caribbean and East Pacific Ocean. A follow-up strike on survivors from a disabled boat on September the 2nd has sparked particular outrage, with legal experts and the U-N saying the attacks violate international law, and the Pentagon’s own rules against targeting the shipwrecked.

.Russian President Vladimir Putin has been meeting with President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two. Just before the meeting, President Putin warned Europe that it would face swift defeat if it went to war with Russia, and he dismissed European counter-proposals on Ukraine as being absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

The Australian share market has closed higher ahead of tomorrow’s key GDP data, where a strong economic growth figure could further complicate the Reserve Bank’s interest rate decision next week. Plus, silver’s rally continues with the precious metal breaking above US$58 an ounce overnight. For more, Stephanie Youssef spoke with MPC Markets CEO Mark Gardner.

Australia's immigration detention regime is under United Nations scrutiny this week. The U-N Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is examining how the country deprives people of their liberty — from prisons to offshore detention facilities. And for people like Muhammad, who spent six years in detention, this review is one that's long overdue.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened a ground invasion of Venezuela to disrupt what he claims is a vast drug-trafficking network. The U-S military has already deployed thousands of troops and dozens of warships to the Caribbean as a U-S air campaign that has killed at least 83 people continues. But how likely is an all-out war with their South American neighbour, really?

Ukrainians are cautiously optimistic that an end to the war could come soon, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a revised U-S peace plan for Ukraine is looking more acceptable. This comes as French President Emmanuel Macron says this may be a turning point for Europe’s security, as Ukraine doubles down on long-term defence with a large French fighter-jet deal.

New data reveals that surging home prices have wiped away the benefits of three interest rate cuts to new buyers. Rent prices are also rising in every capital city, prompting more and more Australians to form larger households or move back to their family home. The rising prices have left economists predicting a possible rate hike in 2026.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with Chris Weston from Pepperstone about the day's market action including another outage at the ASX. Plus Eliza Owen from Cotality Australia takes a look at the latest property price data and future moves.

Israel is facing a political shock wave after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon in his ongoing corruption trial. The unprecedented move has triggered fierce protests, legal warnings and a deeply polarised public debate over whether clemency would unify the nation or erode the rule of law.

There's been widespread and growing speculation that interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is an alien craft. But scientists have debunked the claims. New observations from NASA and South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope confirm it is a natural, volatile-rich comet showing textbook outgassing, hydroxyl radio emissions and expected orbital shifts. Far from extraterrestrial engineering, 3I/ATLAS offers a rare window into the deep past, likely originating in a star system billions of years older than our own.

Indigenous rangers from the Great Barrier Reef are learning coral spawning techniques in one of the largest reef restoration trials to date. The pilot program involves rangers working in the reefs off Queensland's Keppel Islands, which were hit hard by last year's mass coral bleaching event.

The Prime Minister and his fiancée Jodie Hayden have just married, at a ceremony in the nation’s capital. The country's been kept guessing as to exactly when the wedding would take place for months.

Cost of living was the number one challenge identified by Australian youth surveyed by Mission Australia.

In Australia, around 7.6 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. One female-founder has developed a solution in a box.

Australia is expected to spend billions of dollars to deport non-citizens to the small Pacific nation of Nauru. Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson as repeated a years-old stunt, environment laws have passed, and Barnaby Joyce has cosied up with One Nation. Greens Senator David Shoebridge talks about the Nauru deal, after a translation of an interview with the nation's president was controversially put on the record in the Senate.

SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves speaks with El Jannah CEO Brett Houldin as the charcoal chicken company secures international funding valuing it at hundreds of millions of dollars, allowing it to quadruple its national footprint and explore options in the Middle-East; plus the week on the sharemarket with Tony Sycamore from IG Markets Securities Limited.

The latest bushfire outlook forecasts an increased fire risk across parts of Australia this summer. Despite recent rainfall in the country's southeast, authorities say it won't take long for a blaze to take hold.

A blaze that began in bamboo scaffolding at Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court has become the city’s worst fire in decades, killing at least 83 people and leaving hundreds missing. Police have arrested two directors, and an engineering consultant of a firm contracted to perform maintenance on the buildings.