Benjamin Sveen is producer, reporter and researcher based in the ABC's Sydney newsroom.
Posted
| UpdatedThe highly provocative material includes stunts during the federal election campaign, such as performing in blackface and burning of the Koran, to attract global attention and help Senator Anning.
Topics: federal-election, federal-elections, government-and-politics, fascism, forms-of-government, clive-palmer, political-parties, community-and-society, race-relations, federal-government, parliament, federal-parliament, federal---state-issues, australia
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| UpdatedWhen John Young claimed in 2013 to have found an elusive bird that had not been seen in more than a century, he became a hero among bird watchers, but his latest fieldwork has been found to be unreliable.
Topics: conservation, environment, science-and-technology, birds, animal-science, australia
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| UpdatedWeary from a war on drugs that has failed to staunch the bloodshed, voters in Mexico decisively reject the two major parties by electing left-wing populist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, writes Benjamin Sveen.
Topics: elections, world-politics, donald-trump, mexico, united-states
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| UpdatedWhen Donald Trump fired off his bitter character assessment of the Canadian Prime Minister, he wasn't just walking away from a hard-fought agreement between G7 leaders, writes Benjamin Sveen.
Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, foreign-affairs, trade, united-states, canada
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| UpdatedPrison authorities in two states and the Northern Territory lost track of criminals when recent Telstra outages caused their electronic monitoring devices to fail, the ABC has learned.
Topics: computers-and-technology, information-technology, telecommunications, prisons-and-punishment, australia, nt, sa, qld
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| UpdatedThe problems behind Australia's triple-0 meltdown are as complicated as they are concerning but understanding them is less about lightning strikes and more about what happens after something goes wrong.
Topics: telecommunications, industry, information-and-communication, disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, emergency-planning, nsw, vic, wa
Posted
| UpdatedHigh-ranking National Union of Workers official Ian Mackay is stood down amid claims he was involved in a fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page that collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.
Topics: activism-and-lobbying, internet-culture, law-crime-and-justice, unions, government-and-politics, social-media, brisbane-4000, perth-6000, united-states, wa, qld
Posted
| UpdatedMoscow gave no explanation as to how a rare Russian-made nerve agent came to be used on British soil, so the question turns to what diplomatic weapons the United Kingdom is willing to brandish to make Russia pay.
Topics: world-politics, law-crime-and-justice, united-kingdom, russian-federation
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| UpdatedThe poisoning of an ex-Russian spy at a British shopping centre has drawn immediate parallels with other Kremlin opponents who've had a mysterious demise during Russian President Vladimir Putin's rule.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, world-politics, government-and-politics, russian-federation
Posted
| UpdatedSydney's train system has been called many things in the past week — a debacle, chaotic, third world. Experts say one of the more innovative solutions would begin off the rails completely.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, rail-transport, road-transport, transport, government-and-politics, sydney-2000, the-university-of-sydney-2006
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| UpdatedAustralian accountant Bryan Cook created a company that became a global pyramid scheme and arranged for some of Europe's major football clubs to promote it. Investors claim they've lost more than $1 billion in scams he created.
Topics: fraud-and-corporate-crime, law-crime-and-justice, australia, china, taiwan, united-kingdom
Posted
| UpdatedAt the stroke of midnight, Amanda and Amy — and thousands of other same-sex couples who married in overseas jurisdictions — had their vows recognised under Australian law.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, federal-parliament, sexuality, marriage, lgbt, australia
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| UpdatedLeaving 100,000 dead and more than 2 million displaced, at its crux the Bosnian War was about territorial control over south-east Europe, a region of great ethnic and religious diversity formerly known as Yugoslavia.
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, history, bosnia-and-herzegovina
Posted
Residents at an Aveo retirement village on the Gold Coast are in revolt over the embattled company's decision to stop providing an onsite manager — something a barrister argues puts it in breach of its obligations.
Topics: aged-care, older-people, housing-industry, activism-and-lobbying, regulation, southport-4215, qld, australia
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The Federal Government's plan to drug-test welfare recipients is slammed by anti-poverty advocates who say it is a discriminatory tool for profiling vulnerable people.
Topics: budget, government-and-politics, federal-government, welfare, poverty, drugs-and-substance-abuse, australia
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| UpdatedA critical vulnerability is discovered in the software controlling sensitive government facilities, including at the Lucas Heights nuclear plant in Sydney and a Royal Australian Air Force base, according to a cyber security company.
Topics: computers-and-technology, defence-and-national-security, government-and-politics, hacking, lucas-heights-2234, australia, nsw
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| UpdatedInternet giant Google is about to launch a hiring raid for Australia's best and brightest hackers in a move likely to exacerbate a major IT skills shortage in government agencies.
Topics: science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, internet-technology, security-intelligence, australia, nsw, sydney-2000
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| UpdatedOngoing job cuts in Airservices Australia leave the network at "breaking point" and senior managers express fears the new regime is "a huge risk to public safety", an ABC investigation reveals.
Topics: air-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, federal-government, melbourne-3000, melbourne-airport-3045, vic, canberra-2600, act
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If you've thought of using a VPN to get around the Federal Court’s blocking of The Pirate Bay and other file-sharing websites, you might want to take a closer look – especially if have an Android device.
Topics: internet-technology, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, australia
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| UpdatedPrivate email accounts belonging to high-profile politicians and senior Defence officials are among the 1 billion victims of the massive Yahoo data breach. Who were the hackers and how serious was the attack?
Topics: hacking, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, law-crime-and-justice, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia
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| UpdatedThousands of Australian government officials, including high-profile politicians, senior Defence officials and ambassadors posted overseas, are among the 1 billion victims of the Yahoo data breach, according a secret dataset obtained by the ABC.
Topics: hacking, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, law-crime-and-justice, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe Australian Federal Police has charged a man over a series of hoax calls to pilots and air traffic control staff at Melbourne airports.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, melbourne-3000, vic, australia, tullamarine-3043
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| UpdatedThe Australian Federal Police launch an investigation into 15 hoax calls made to planes and air traffic control over a two-week period, one of which caused a passenger flight to abort landing as it approached Melbourne Airport.
Topics: air-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, law-crime-and-justice, melbourne-3000, vic, australia
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| UpdatedThe Australian Federal Police investigates the discovery of crystal methamphetamine in a thoroughfare used by air traffic controllers, with a source claiming Airservices Australia management has done little to get to the bottom of the find.
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, drug-offences, australia, brisbane-4000, qld