SBS News in Easy English is a daily five-minute news podcast in clear, simple English. Each episode covers the top stories from Australia and around the world in plain language, making the news easy to follow for English language learners, people with disability and anyone who prefers news explained simply. New episodes every weekday.
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English.
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The Federal Government says tax on superannuation has given the economy more money than predicted.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher also says increased government spending is not the reason inflation is high.
"If you look around the world (at) advanced economies there is an inflation challenge there. Many of those have moved to increase - their central bank have moved to increase rates in the last month because of that. For us here, the war in the Middle East could not end soon enough. That is having ongoing impacts on inflation, particularly being felt at the petrol bowser. But we take our job of getting the budget in better shape. And that is what we've been doing in every budget."
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Five men have been arrested, accused of planning a terrorist act near a British air base used by the United States.
Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone says police were called after three suspicious vehicles were seen travelling towards the base.
"A 400-metre cordon has been put in place around the vehicles while the army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit examine them. As a precaution around 85 households have been advised to evacuate while these examinations take place."
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Experts are calling for Australia to increase its focus on developing knowledge of AI.
Monash University's Dr Chetan Arora says Australia needs to ensure it has local experts to help protect the nation against a growing risk of out-of-control AI agents or purposeful cyber attacks.
"We need to very quickly build or develop a generation of engineers that are experts across agentic systems, cybersecurity, AI, and so on. So that we have the capacity building in-house to be able to have the talent across Australia at the level of the US or China or Europe."
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In sport, the Brisbane Broncos are through to a fifth womens' Rugby League grand final after beating the Gold Coast Titans 20 to 8.
And in the men's NRL, Newcastle Knights have secured their first grand final appearance since 2001.
Coach Justin Holbrook says player Sandon Smith is a big part of Newcastle's success.
"Quick-witted little halfback there that takes your tap and, you know, he had to step up for us and he did and he stays so calm in situations and a big part in the reason we've been winning games, that's for sure. We just can't wait to play next week.”
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That's the latest SBS News in Easy English.
