Brigitte Macron pushes her husband Emmanuel Macron while deboarding a plane in Vietnam in 2025. According to a new book, the incident was caused by messages Emmanuel sent to an Iranian actress. This incident made a lot of headlines in 2025. The couple dismissed it as a joke.
NFL sets inaugural Thanksgiving Eve game between Packers and Rams
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The National Football League has found yet another day to take over.
The NFL announced on Wednesday its inaugural Thanksgiving Eve game will be played this year between the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams, on Netflix.
A few years ago, the NFL realized that Black Friday could be an option for fans to gather around their televisions, and it found another as hometown bars will be packed the night before the big holiday.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Teams line up at the line of scrimmage during the NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Oct. 6, 2024. (Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire)
The NFL has dipped its toe into holidays, also becoming the new king of Christmas.
The Packers and Rams played each other each season from 2020 to 2024 (the 2020 campaign bout was during the playoffs) but did not face off in 2025.
The Packers have walloped the Rams in recent memory, winning 16 of their last 21 meetings dating back to 1992, including 10 of their last 11.
Netflix and NFL signage advertises the NFL’s two Christmas Day marquee games streaming live on Netflix in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Dec. 1, 2024. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
AN NFL GAME THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING IS OFFICIALLY ‘TOO MUCH FOOTBALL’
Oddly enough, before their 2024 bout, each of their prior four meetings was in Green Bay, but this will now mark back-to-back contests in Los Angeles.
The last time the two teams met, back on Oct. 6, 2024, Tucker Kraft had two touchdowns for the Packers, including one that went for 66 yards.
The NFL game ball rests on the turf before a play during the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich., on Nov. 27, 2025. (Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire)
The Rams tried their best at a fourth-quarter comeback, but Green Bay came away with a 24-19 victory on the road.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The game will be broadcast on Netflix, with the streaming service also broadcasting the Rams’ Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia, two Christmas games and a Week 18 Saturday game.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Source link
West Pharmaceutical says hackers stole data, encrypted systems
West Pharmaceutical Services disclosed that it was the target of a cyberattack that resulted in data exfiltration and system encryption.
The company said that it detected a compromise on May 4th. An investigation into the incident determined that the attacker stole data from the network.
“On May 7, 2026, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. determined that […it] has experienced a material cybersecurity attack, in which certain data was exfiltrated by an unauthorized party and certain systems were encrypted,” West Pharmaceutical Services notes in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Upon initial detection of an intrusion on May 4, 2026, the company promptly activated its incident response protocols, including proactively taking systems offline globally for containment purposes, notifying law enforcement, and engaging external cyber-forensic experts.”
An investigation is currently underway to determine the exact nature and scope of the incident, and the type of data the attacker stole.
West Pharmaceutical Services is a publicly traded, S&P 500 American pharmaceutical manufacturing company with annual revenues exceeding $3 billion and more than 10,800 employees globally.
The company specializes in injectable drug packaging, syringe and vial components, containment systems, and drug delivery devices.
The cyberattack triggered a response that inevitably disrupted the company’s global business operations.
The firm says it has restored its core enterprise systems that support shipping and manufacturing operations, and manufacturing has been partially restarted.
Complete restoration of all systems has not yet been achieved, and no timeline for finalizing this restoration was provided at this time.
Similarly, the company has not made any estimates about the incident’s material impact on its financials.
It’s worth noting that West Pharmaceutical Services stated that it has taken steps to mitigate the risk of the dissemination of the exfiltrated data, but hasn’t specified exactly what those steps are.
BleepingComputer has contacted the firm with a request for comments about the attack, its impact, and its current incident management plan. A company spokesperson said that immediately after detecting the intrusion, incident response and crisis management protocols were activated.
“Following initial detection of an intrusion on May 4, 2026, West Pharmaceutical Services promptly implemented a series of technical and organizational measures to contain and mitigate the potential impact. This included the proactive shutdown and isolation of affected on-premise infrastructure for containment purposes, restriction of access to enterprise systems, and activation of further incident response and crisis management protocols, including notifying law enforcement.”
West Pharmaceutical Services also engaged Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 for incident response, containment, and recovery efforts, in coordination with other external experts and legal counsel.
No ransomware groups have taken credit for the attack on West Pharmaceutical Services at the time of writing.
AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.
At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.
Claim Your SpotSource link
Kendrick Perkins accidentally exposed the NBA’s biggest problem during ESPN’s ‘First Take’
Kendrick Perkins said the quiet part out loud during ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday.
The NBA analyst was discussing Victor Wembanyama after the San Antonio Spurs star once again reminded everyone that he is not a normal human being (don’t call him an alien unless you want Stan Van Gundy to scold you).
The 2023 No. 1 overall pick scored 27 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and added five assists and three blocks to lead the Spurs to a Game 5 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, 126-97, on Tuesday night. The victory put San Antonio one win away from a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama is arguably the best player in the NBA. (Abbie Parr/AP)
Wembanyama is 7-foot-4, handles like a guard, shoots threes, and blocks shots. He already looks like the best two-way player in the league. He’s truly unlike anything basketball fans have ever seen, arguably a better Giannis Antetokounmpo than, well, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
OUTKICK IS NOW ON THE FOX APP: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
That led Perkins, who has had some really terrible opinions in the past, to reach an interesting conclusion.
The NBA belongs to international players.
“I thought American basketball was catching back up,” Perkins said. He argued that Antetokounmpo’s injury issues and Nikola Jokic’s slight decline this season (in Perkins’ view) provided an opening for Americans to step back into the spotlight over a pair of foreigners who have dominated the league in recent years.
Then came Wembanyama.
“And then all of a sudden, Wemby comes along in this postseason and last night in particular, and shows us that no, it still belongs to the international players,” Perkins said. “The international players have completely taken over our league.”
It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Perkins, but this is one of those times. However, he didn’t go far enough. He accidentally identified one of the NBA’s biggest problems.
Perkins continued by rattling off the recent MVP winners: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Jokic again, Jokic again, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Giannis Antetokounmpo again. An American-born player hasn’t won the league’s MVP award since 2018 (James Harden). It’s not likely to happen this season, either, with SGA the overwhelming favorite to capture the award for the second consecutive season.
The ESPN analyst then added that Wembanyama is going to be the best player on the floor “on both ends” for the next decade and is likely to add his name to the foreign-born MVP list in the near future.
Again, he’s probably right.
And that’s a problem for the NBA in America.
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins says international players have “completely taken over” the NBA, arguing there’s no hope for Americans to reclaim the league’s top spot for the next decade. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Not because international players are bad. Quite the opposite. They have brought a ton of skill to the league and the game of basketball in general, including college hoops. That’s great for the NBA globally. But it’s not great for the league domestically (although, foreign money pads the bank account just the same, so the league might not even care).
Americans like rooting for Americans. This is not complicated, even though people in sports media love pretending that it is.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Look at hockey. For decades, hockey struggled to grab the average American sports fan because it never really felt like an American sport. It was dominated by Canadians, Russians, Swedes, Finns and Czechs. Great players. Great sport. But for many casual American fans, it didn’t feel like ours.
Then Team USA beat Canada for Olympic gold, and suddenly the entire conversation changed. Matthew Tkachuk, Jack Hughes, Connor Hellebuyck and the rest of the American stars didn’t just win. They made Americans feel like hockey belonged to them, too.
That matters.
The NHL didn’t fundamentally change overnight. The rules didn’t change. The ice wasn’t any bigger. The puck wasn’t any easier to follow. But once Americans saw American stars beating Canada at its own game, the sport felt different. And TV ratings have shown that the Olympics bump increased American interest in the NHL.
The NBA is dealing with the opposite problem.
For years, the NBA had a very easy domestic marketing formula: sell American greatness.
Magic Johnson. Larry Bird. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O’Neal. Kobe Bryant. LeBron James. Steph Curry. Kevin Durant. Dwyane Wade. Charles Barkley. Allen Iverson.
Yes, the league had international stars mixed in, and some were great players. But the face of the league was almost always American. More specifically, the NBA’s cultural power was built largely through black American superstardom.
LeBron James has been the face of the NBA for over 20 years, but the run is coming to an end. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
That’s why one of the laziest narratives in basketball has always been that the NBA, or NBA media, secretly wants more European stars because some of them are White.
That’s patently false and not supported by a shred of evidence.
Do people really think American fans preferred Nikola Jokic because he’s white over LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson or Anthony Edwards? Come on. That’s easy to disprove because when Jokic’s Nuggets won the NBA Finals in 2023, it was one of the lowest-rated series ever (excluding the years affected by COVID). When Curry’s Warriors were dominating the league, NBA Finals games were averaging nearly 20 million viewers.
In addition, some of the best international players in the league aren’t white. Wembanyama is black. Giannis is Black. Embiid is black. Shai is black. This isn’t a “white European” takeover. It’s an international takeover.
Second, American fans have always connected more with American stars, regardless of race. Black American NBA stars (really, all elite black athletes) have been among the most famous, popular and marketable athletes in the history of this country. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are two of the most recognizable figures in American pop culture.
The issue isn’t race.
The issue is connection.
Wembanyama, Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis are incredible athletes.
But they don’t feel like American sports heroes. Because they aren’t.
That might make some people uncomfortable. It shouldn’t. It’s just reality.
Greek-born Giannis Antetokounmpo has won two NBA MVP awards and no American-born player has captured the award since 2018. (Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
Sports fandom is tribal. It’s regional. It’s national. It’s emotional. And in the United States, fans still want a reason to feel like the league belongs to them.
Perkins captured that with one phrase: “our league.”
He didn’t say “the league.” He said “our league.”
For many American basketball fans, the NBA increasingly doesn’t feel like “our league” at the very top. It feels like a global league that happens to play most of its games in the United States.
Maybe the NBA is fine with that. Maybe Adam Silver and league executives look at international growth, global merchandise sales and streaming numbers and shrug. Maybe they believe losing a bit of American cultural attachment is worth gaining a larger worldwide footprint.
That’s a business decision.
But don’t act confused when the average American sports fan doesn’t feel the same attachment to a league where the best player conversation is dominated by a Serbian, a Slovenian, a Greek-Nigerian, a Frenchman, a Cameroonian and a Canadian.
As good as they are, they’re not American-born.
And that matters in the United States.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE
“There is no hope for us to take over our league,” he said. “There is no hope whatsoever, at least for the next 10 years, for us to get our league back.”
That’s a wild thing to hear from an ESPN NBA analyst.
It’s also the truth.
Wembanyama isn’t the NBA’s problem. He might be the future of basketball from a gameplay and talent perspective.
But if the future face of the NBA is not an American star, then the league has to accept what comes with that.
Global relevance might go up.
American emotional investment might not.
And for a league built in America, that’s a bigger problem than many are willing to admit.
Source link
Skip Bayless boosts Stephen A’s sluggish “First Take” ratings by 24% on their reunion show
Skip Bayless’ return to “First Take” on ESPN last week boosted viewership by 24%, ESPN confirms to OutKick.
The episode aired Friday, May 9, and averaged 647,000 viewers. The program is averaging 520,800 viewers so far in 2026.
This was Bayless’ first television appearance with Stephen A. Smith in nearly 10 years.
The increase is notable. While “First Take” remains one of ESPN’s higher-rated shows, it has struggled to keep pace with the growth of surrounding programs. ESPN recently said “Get Up” is up 18% and “The Pat McAfee Show” is up 16%. “First Take,” which airs between them, is up just 5%.
Sports journalist and television personality Skip Bayless appears on television screens in the control room during the live filming of ESPN2’s daily sports talk show First Take at ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, Conn., on Aug. 30, 2013. (Christopher Capozziello/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
JEMELE HILL BECOMES SURPRISING VOICE OF REASON IN CAITLIN CLARK-MORGAN WALLEN “CONTROVERSY”
There is a case that the show has grown stale under its current format of rotating contributors debating with Smith. The lineup often features mid-tier former athletes like Ryan Clark, Kendrick Perkins and Chiney Ogwumike. That dynamic forces Smith to drive the discussion himself. As his other former debate partner Max Kellerman explained, Smith is at his best reacting cartoonishly to provocative takes, not constructing them.
Enter Skip Bayless.
Friday’s episode felt more engaging because Bayless set the tone. As in the past, he answered first, made an argument, and Smith responded theatrically. This format does not appeal to everyone and can veer into the corny, but it is more compelling than watching Smith stretch to carry debates on his own.
Since Bayless’ departure, Smith has often appeared unprepared and uninformed on general sports topics. His increased focus on political commentary outside ESPN has not helped.
Stephen A. Smith speaks on the shocking assassination attempt at White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Looking ahead, ESPN labeled Bayless’ return a “one-time” appearance. However, Smith said as recently as last year that he had no interest in reuniting with Bayless in any capacity. Plans change, especially when viewership is a factor.
Stephen A. sees Mike Greenberg (the host of “Get Up”) and Pat McAfee closing in on his viewership. The gaps between the three are now minimal. At this pace, one or both could surpass “First Take” by football season. Smith, who is also the executive producer of “First Take,” will undoubtedly take note of the lift Bayless provides and consider bringing him back again.
Whether Bayless can deliver sustained gains beyond a nostalgia-driven, one-time spike is unclear. ESPN and Smith may test that with additional appearances before making any longer-term decision.
Skip Bayless is seen in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 27, 2017. (Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images)
OUTKICK IS NOW ON THE FOX APP: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
In any event, a full-time return for Bayless is unlikely. Smith has long emphasized his control over the show and is unlikely to want to share it.
On one hand, a part-time role could be a blow to Bayless’ ego. “First Take” was his show in 2012. He pushed for Smith to join him, despite internal resistance at ESPN to use him as anything more than a radio talent. Returning as a contributor to a platform that used to be his cannot be ideal.
On the other hand, Bayless recently posted a 28-minute video recapping the appearance and called his relationship with Smith the “greatest thing to ever happen” to him, even above his marriage. He sounds desperate. Since leaving FS1 in 2024, he has struggled to break through in the digital media space.
Ultimately, Skip Bayless returning once a week to debate Smith, like Chris “Mad Dog” Russo does each Wednesday, would make the most sense for all parties.
Bayless needs it. Stephen A. and “First Take” might as well.
Source link
Closed briefing sets stage for House hearing on Anthropic’s Mythos and cyber risks
The House Homeland Security Committee is digging into Anthropic’s AI model Mythos in a series of briefings and hearings, as questions proliferate on whether and how the federal government will make use of the technology touted for its ability to autonomously uncover cyber vulnerabilities.
Wednesday brought a closed-door briefing for the House Homeland Security Committee from Anthropic. The chairman of the panel’s cybersecurity subcommittee said he is planning to hold a hearing on the topic. And committee Democrats are requesting a classified briefing with Anthropic.
A number of key lawmakers, including top committee Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and GOP cyber subcommittee chair Andy Ogles of Tennessee, told CyberScoop they weren’t able to attend Wednesday’s briefing. But one source who did attend said it was a “productive” meeting.
“Members on both sides were focused on preserving U.S. advantage in AI, which basically came down to preserving our edge on compute power,” the source said. “They were also asking questions about whether the federal government was using Mythos, including about where CISA is and the impact of the supply chain risk designation.”
The Hill reported that Wednesday’s briefing was led on the Anthropic side by Logan Graham, from the company’s frontier red team, and Josh Tilstra, from the firm’s national security programs and policy team. It follows another recent closed briefing with Anthropic and OpenAI for the House Homeland Security Committee.
Ogles told CyberScoop he plans to hold a hearing of his subcommittee related to Mythos, but wasn’t able to attend Wednesday’s briefing due to scheduling conflicts. The top Democrat on Ogle’s subcommittee, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, also was unable to join due to prior commitments, but she was set to receive a rundown from staff about Wednesday’s briefing, her office said.
There’s a divide on which federal agencies are using Mythos thus far. For example: CISA reportedly isn’t, but the National Security Agency is.
The federal divide on its use follows a Department of Defense blacklist that labeled the company a “supply chain risk” after Anthropic resisted pressure from the Pentagon to use its Claude AI model in ways the company opposed. The department says it has been using Mythos to identify cyber vulnerabilities despite the blacklist.
A turf battle is brewing within the Trump administration over testing of AI models, The Washington Post reported this week. Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said this week that it would be ‘insane” for U.S. spy agencies not to have early access to advanced AI models.
The Mythos briefing came one day after OpenAI announced its own cybersecurity initiative.
Source link
‘Mera Lyari’ was released as Pakistan’s answer to ‘Dhurandhar’; Only this many tickets were sold on the first day – Mera Lyari Pakistani Movie Sell 22 Ticket Makers Says This Movie Response To Bollywood Movie Dhurandhar 2
Entertainment Desk, Amar Ujala
Published by: Poonam Kandari
Updated Thu, 14 May 2026 03:56 PM IST
Mera Lyari Pakistani Box Office Collection: The makers of Pakistani film ‘Mera Lyari’ had claimed that it is the answer to Bollywood film ‘Dhurandhar’. Recently this film was released in theatres. Know whether ‘Mera Lyari’ has really been able to match the film ‘Dhurandhar’ at the box office.
Film ‘Dhurandhar 2’ and Pakistani movie ‘Mera Lyari’ – Photo: Amar Ujala
Isles Matthew Schaefer annihilates Calder Trophy field, rookie wins award unanimously
The Calder Trophy — awarded to the NHL’s rookie of the year — is usually one of the most talked-about awards that the league dishes out, and that’s because there’s usually a pretty compelling race for the award.
Well… not exactly this year.
Instead, Islanders rookie standout Matthew Schaefer was the runaway winner.
Islanders rookie standout Matthew Schaefer ran away with this year’s Calder Trophy race. (Brad Penner-Imagn Images)
Schaeffer, who was selected by the Isles with the first-overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, was surprised with the trophy during an appearance on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’, with his father on hand.
Also in attendance were former Islander Matt Martin and his family, with whom Schaefer lived this season.
Emotions were high as Schaefer overcame some personal tragedy when his mother passed away in 2024.
He has quickly become a key piece of an Islanders team that looked to be on course for the postseason but faded down the stretch.
Matthew Schaefer is selected as the first overall pick by the New York Islanders in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft at Peacock Theater. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Despite the disappointment for the team, Schaefer had an incredible 59 points (23G, 36A) as a defenseman and a +13 rating after appearing in all 82 games this season.
It was so impressive that he won the Calder Trophy unanimously, taking all the first-place votes ahead of Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov and Anaheim Ducks winger Beckett Sennecke.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
And that’s not to imply that Demidov and Sennecke were slouches this year. Far from it.
Demidov racked up 62 points (19G, 43A), while Sennecke had 60 points (23G, 37A), and both were key pieces that helped their respective teams not only make it into the playoffs at all, but into the second round.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The win makes Schaefer the first unanimous Calder Trophy winner since Teemu Selanne won the award in 1992-93 as a member of the original Winnipeg Jets.
Schaefer — who seems like a really good dude — capped off the day by taking his new hardware to a local children’s hospital.
Source link
India gold discounts soar past $200 an ounce after import duty hike
Gold discounts in India widened to record levels of more than $200 an ounce after the government increased import duties on gold and silver from 6 per cent to 15 per cent. | Photo Credit: SIVARAM V
Gold discounts in India widened to a record of more than $200 an ounce on Wednesday, as a surge in prices after the import duty hike triggered investor selling in an already weak demand environment, bullion dealers told Reuters.
India on Wednesday raised import tariffs on gold and silver to 15% from 6% as part of efforts to curb overseas purchases of the metals and ease pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
“Discount levels were crazy in the physical market. We were double-checking prices before executing deals,” said a bullion division head of a Mumbai-based private bank, who has traded gold for more than two decades.
Investor selling intensifies amid weak demand
Dealers in India offered discounts of up to $207 an ounce over official domestic prices on Wednesday, inclusive of 15% import and 3% sales levies, up from the $17 an ounce on Tuesday.
The duty hike triggered a sharp rise in local gold prices, prompting some investors to cash in on gains by offloading gold, even at heavy discounts, said another Mumbai-based dealer at a private bank.
Both bullion dealers declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to media.
Gold futures in the world’s second biggest consuming market jumped 7.2% on Wednesday to 164,497 rupees per 10 grams, the highest level in more than two months.
Investors were also booking profits in gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), adding to supply in the market, the bullion dealer said.
Retail buyers and jewelers stayed on the sidelines, increasing selling pressure and pushing discounts to unusually high levels, said Ashok Jain, proprietor of Mumbai-based gold wholesaler Chenaji Narsinghji.
Bullion dealers warn of smuggling risk
Bullion dealers also expressed concern that the latest duty hike could boost smuggling, as it widened margins for grey-market operators to about 18%, from around 9%, said a Chennai-based bullion dealer.
Gray market operators smuggle gold from overseas and sell it for cash to avoid duties, allowing them to offer it at discounts to market prices by evading taxes.
Published on May 14, 2026
Has Labor’s tax reform killed ‘rent-vesting’ for young Australians seeking a foothold in the housing market? | Australian budget 2026
Rent-vesting – a popular strategy used by young Australians to save for their first home – could be killed off by Labor’s tax changes on investment properties, experts warn.
Renters have used the strategy to keep living in their preferred area while buying a cheaper property elsewhere, hoping it will rise in price so they can sell and put the profits towards their first home.
It has boomed in popularity as young Australians struggle to break into an unaffordable housing market.
But higher capital gains tax and the tight restrictions on negative gearing announced in Tuesday’s budget will make the method less attractive, according to Domain’s chief economist, Dr Nicola Powell.
“It’s going to hurt … [and] their journey to actually buying a home and having it as a roof over their head might be delayed,” Powell said.
“Rent-vesting is all about building up equity and releasing that gain to then eventually put into a home that you want to live in yourself.”
“Rent-vesters” will still be able to negatively gear new builds or continue if they were negatively gearing a property before Tuesday’s changes.
The typical Australian home now costs eight times more than the typical income after years of soaring prices, according to property data firm Cotality. It would take 11 years to save a 20% deposit.
Tuesday’s tax reforms, aimed at cutting investors’ competition for housing, are expected to help an extra 75,000 renters buy their first home in the coming decade and leave house prices 2% lower than they otherwise would have been.
Rent-vestors had sought to use spiralling house prices and the now-scrapped tax breaks as a means to bridge the affordability gap.
Since July 2019, nearly 53,000 Australians have entered the housing market by buying an investment property, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
A third of them have been in New South Wales, Australia’s least affordable housing market.
Ry Atkinson, a Sydney renter, has been among those investing their home deposit savings in a cheaper property further away.
The 31-year-old’s parents bought their home in Sydney’s northern beaches while working in disability care. The only way Atkinson could afford a decent place nearby was to become a rent-vestor, he said.
“It’s all luxury apartments now that no one can afford,” Atkinson said. “We’re priced out of the market here, so we had to look to some other options.”
Atkinson and his wife, Sophie, bought a house 1,200km away, in Queensland’s Hervey Bay, in January, hoping it would rise in price in the coming years so they could sell it and buy in Sydney.
Those capital profits will be more tightly taxed after Tuesday’s budget but Atkinson still supports the reform.
“We know how difficult it is and something does need to change,” he said.
Like most young investors, the couple spends more money repaying the loan than they earn in rent. Negative gearing allows landlords to deduct losses on tax, propping up investments with low yield.
The couple will retain their access to negative gearing but people buying investment properties after Tuesday’s budget will lose access to negative gearing from July 2027 onwards.
Brendan Dixon, the managing director of Pure Finance, said that meant banks would cut the amount they would lend to new buyers, making rent-vesting more difficult.
“Investors won’t be able to borrow as much money, which will reduce their rent-vesting budget,” Dixon said.
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has argued the reforms harm young Australians by making the strategy more costly.
“If you seek to invest your home deposit to buy your first home, the government is going to increase the taxes on that, so they’re actually hamstringing young Australians who want to get ahead,” Wilson told the ABC on Tuesday.
The strategy is used by a small share of housing market entrants, with 7,000 new rent-vestors in the year to March, compared with 120,000 new first home buyers in the year.
Samuel Power, a finance broker with Loan Market, said Australia’s persistent lack of housing supply and high prices meant young people would still be left looking for opportunities to rent-vest.
“Older Australians have built wealth through established property over decades, supported by the existing tax system,” Power said.
“Restricting negative gearing to new builds increasingly locks, or at least limits, younger buyers out of the same pathway.”
Source link