23/02/2026

MONDAY | FEB 23, 2026

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Rural Australia goes green

Canberra rejects repatriation report SYDNEY: Australia’s centre-left government yesterday rejected a local media report that said it was working to repatriate Australians in a Syrian camp holding families of suspected IS militants. The 34 women and children were released last week from the camp in northern Syria, but returned to the detention centre due to technical reasons. The group is expected to travel to Damascus before eventually returning to Australia, despite objections from ruling and opposition lawmakers. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke yesterday rejected claims made in a Sunday Telegraph report asserting that official preparations were under way for the cohort’s return. “In that report, it makes a claim that we are conducting a repatriation. We are not,” Burke told Australian Broadcasting Corp television. “It claims we have been meeting the states for the purposes of a repatriation. We have not.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week his government would not help the group return to Australia. The return of relatives of suspected IS militants is a political issue in Australia, which has seen a surge in popularity of the right-wing, anti-immigration One Nation party led by Pauline Hanson. The IS group is listed as a terrorist organisation in Australia, with membership punishable by up to 25 years in prison. – Reuters IDFC First Bank reported a profit of US$55.46 million in the last quarter. – Reuters Indian bank probes US$65m Haryana fraud NEW DELHI: India’s IDFC First Bank said it was investigating a suspected fraud of US$65 million (RM253.7 million) by some employees involving accounts of local government entities and that the bank had alerted the police. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Saturday, IDFC First said it had observed discrepancies of 5.9 billion rupees (RM253.7 million) in accounts of some entities of the Haryana state government in the north of the country. The Mumbai-based private lender said it had suspended four employees of the branch in the city of Chandigarh pending investigation of the “incident involving unauthorised and fraudulent activities”. The bank, which attracted investments from the likes of Warburg Pincus and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority last year, said it would appoint an independent agency to investigate the incident and had filed a police complaint. The Haryana state government and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment yesterday. The discrepancies were spotted when the government entities requested the closure of accounts and the amounts claimed by the two sides did not match, the bank said.

function properly, but also, and more importantly, to comply with bushfire prevention regulations. Sheep, and in particular wool, were a mainstay of the Australian economy for much of the past 150 years, feeding into the notion by the 1950s that Australia “rode on the sheep’s back”. The Dubbo farm, however, was a pioneer in the field of agrivoltaics and many others are following its example. “All of our solar farms in New South Wales now have sheep grazing on them,” said Emily Walker, the company’s director for the state. “The industry is moving very quickly into a world in which it’s not really possible anymore to decouple the historical-agricultural land use from the solar.” Australia remains heavily dependent on its fossil fuel economy for growth despite heavy investment in the renewable sector. – AFP

“The wool is actually better and cleaner,” Warren said. “All over, we’ve had about a 15% increase in the gross revenue coming from the sheep running under the solar farm.” Fellow farmer Tony Inder, based around 50km south in the town of Wellington, agrees. His flock is much larger – 6,000 sheep grazing on two plots of land covering 4,000ha. “If you want to grow wool, you just need one constant diet and then the wool will grow evenly,” he said. “Under the panels, because it’s constant shade and it’s constant green, we’re supplying a more constant feed, which in turn gives better quality wool.” Unlike Warren, Inder does not own the land on which the solar panels are installed, but the landowners let him use it for free. In exchange, “they don’t have to mow as often”, to ensure the panels

“Normally, they would seek out trees and camp under the trees, but you can see that the sheep are seeking out the shade of the panels,” he said. “So, it’s a much better environment for them as well.” The farm produces about 20 megawatts of power, he said – a “substantial amount” of the energy needs of the local area. While he cannot disclose how much he earns from the panels, he said he is taking in much more than he would from just farming. “The solar farm income is greater than I would ever get off agriculture in this area regardless of whether I have sheep running under the panels,” he said. The panels have had another surprising side effect. Because the grass is shielded from the elements, it is of more consistent quality. That, in turn, has improved the wool produced by the sheep.

DUBBO: Australian farmer Tom Warren’s solar panels look like any other – until you spot the dozens of sheep grazing and napping, helping the country transition to green energy and earning him a decent income while doing it. More than 30,000 solar panels are deployed across 50ha at Warren’s farm on the outskirts of Dubbo, around 400km west of Sydney. The farmer and landowner has been working with renewables firm Neoen for more than a decade and said he was initially worried the panels would restrict his sheep’s grazing. It quickly became clear those fears were unfounded. o Solar panel boost for sheep farms

Sheep grazing among solar panels at Warren’s farm. – AFPPIC

Ruling German party backs teen social media curbs STUTTGART: Germany’s ruling

“I think it’s fair, but I think it should be up to the parents to decide whether to forbid it, not the state,” said 13-year-old Moritz, who says he only watches YouTube. “For children under 12, it should be forbidden. But from age 12, I think children can already distinguish between what is fake news and what is not.” His classmate Emma, 13, almost exclusively uses Snapchat, but has a time limit on her phone. A ban would be “kind of unusual, because you get used to sending your snap in the morning before school, or what my friends do, like just scrolling through Instagram or TikTok for a bit”, she said. – Reuters

sphere up to the age of 16,” said the motion that passed on Saturday. Merz’s coalition partners the Social Democrats have also backed social media curbs for children. Pressure from both parties in the coalition makes it increasingly likely that the federal government will push for restrictions. However, under Germany’s federal system, media regulation is a state level responsibility and states must negotiate with one another to agree on consistent nationwide rules. The ban could affect children like those at the Cardinal Frings Gymnasium in Bonn, several of whom a day earlier were scrolling on their phones on the school grounds.

accessing platforms such as TikTok or Instagram. It follows the example of Australia, which last year became the first country to force platforms to cut off access for children. European nations are more broadly ratcheting up pressure on social media companies, risking a backlash from the United States. President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs and sanctions if EU countries impose new tech taxes or online regulations that hit US firms. “We call on the federal government to introduce a legal age limit of 14 for the use of social networks and to address the special need for protection in the digital

conservatives on Saturday passed a motion to ban social media use for under 14s and introduce more stringent digital verification checks for teenagers, building momentum for such limits in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. At a party conference here, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union also called for fines for online platforms that failed to enforce such limits, and European Union-wide harmonisation of age standards. A growing number of countries, including Spain, Greece, France and Britain, are looking at similar social media bans or restrictions on