Premier describes deal as ‘major win’ that will deliver more jobs for the state and put more energy into its grid

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Anthropic, the AI company behind the large language model Claude, has done a deal to lease the site of its first Australian datacentre in western Queensland.

The $31.9bn datacentre will be the largest of its kind in Australia, according to planning documents.

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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

As minister says process needs to be ‘streamlined’, Greens and Lock the Gate say the legislation is ‘corrupt’ and tears up environmental protections

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Queenslanders’ right to object to mining projects – including coal – would be “gutted” by new legislation that would ban opponents from being heard in court without the minister’s approval and then only if they owned a property within a 125km radius of the project.

The Greens have called the move “corrupt” and community action group Lock the Gate Alliance said the state’s LNP government was “tearing up democratic and environmental protections just to make life easier for mining companies”.

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© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images

© Photograph: Fairfax Media/Getty Images

Federal-state stoush comes as rating agency warns that electricity bills could skyrocket

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Queensland and the Northern Territory have rejected the federal government’s plans to mandate that AI datacentres use renewable power, rubbishing Anthony Albanese’s proposals to regulate the booming technology as “underdeveloped ideas that hand increased power to Canberra”.

The latest federal-state stoush on energy comes as S&P Global, the economic rating agency, warns that power use from datacentres could rise five-fold by 2035 to 10% of Australia’s total consumption, and that a mismatch between delivery timelines for datacentres and renewable projects could lead to energy bills skyrocketing.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Paleontologists at the University of New South Wales have described a new genus and species of dasyurid marsupial from the Early Miocene of Australia, offering the first solid evidence that the family Dasyuridae -- which today includes quolls, Tasmanian devils and tiny antechinuses -- existed long before scientists had proof of it in the fossil record.

The post Early Miocene Fossil Rewrites Family Tree of Little Carnivorous Marsupials appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

L'Australian Space Agency (ASA), in collaborazione con le autorità di gestione delle emergenze, ha isolato Forrest Beach nel Queensland dopo il ritrovamento di sei sfere metalliche argentate. Gli oggetti si sono rivelati essere "space balls", ovvero serbatoi a pressione in leghe di titanio utilizzati nei vettori spaziali, precipitati in mare a causa del rientro incontrollato di un razzo e spinti a riva dalle correnti. Alice Gorman, archeologa spaziale della Flinders University, ha ipotizzato che i serbatoi si siano staccati prima del raggiungimento delle orbite più alte, data l'assenza di bruciature termiche evidenti. L'intervento di messa in sicurezza ha richiesto l'uso di tute protettive speciali per scongiurare contaminazioni da idrazina, un propellente altamente tossico e infiammabile potenzialmente rimasto all'interno dei contenitori.

Paleontologists have described a new genus and three new species of small, insect-eating marsupials from the Early Miocene deposits of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, one of Australia’s richest fossil sites.

The post New Marsupial Lineage Emerges from Australian Fossils appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.