Disasters rarely wait for confirmation. They unfold in minutes, escalate in hours, and reshape lives overnight. In that window, information can save lives or deepen confusion. For decades, disaster reporting relied heavily on eyewitness accounts, official briefings, and delayed field updates. Today, in 2026, real-time datasets are transforming that model. Journalists are no longer just documenting destruction. They are interpreting risk as it develops. From hurricanes and floods to earthquakes and wildfires, disasters generate enormous streams of data, satellites, live rainfall dashboards, radar imagery, river-level monitoring, social media signals and government alert systems. Instead of waiting for post-event damage assessments, reporters can now track storm paths, identify high-risk neighbourhoods and monitor impact as it unfolds. Flood maps built from live rainfall and river-level data can pinpoint vulnerable localities. Satellite imagery confirms inundation patterns. Social m

So Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead. Nobody celebrated that news harder than The Australian who not only threw its entire front page over to the ‘Death of Tyranny’ but then devoted the next four pages inside of the paper.   The Australian’s Washington Correspondent Joe Kelly filed the lead, writing US president Donald Trump had “launched a historic attempt at regime change”. Iranian-born freelance journalist Shokoofeh Azar was also given a front page slot under the headline ‘We’re dancing on your corpse’ where she wrote of “jubilant rebellion” across Iran. Meanwhile, Israels’ are “bracing for the worst” opined North Asia Correspondent Yoni Bashi, expecting reprisal attack from the Iran “now under new management”.   At The Herald and The Age, Supratim Adhikari, Michael Kozil and Chris Zappone combined for the front pager.   Well, at least we think they did beca

Republic Media Network hosted an insurance awareness and enrollment drive on 26 February 2026 at its Kolkata office, in collaboration with Axis Bank and Niva Bupa Health Insurance. Employees received guidance on health insurance benefits, plan options, and claim procedures through interactive sessions and one-to-one consultations. As shared in a LinkedIn post, the initiative saw enthusiastic participation across departments and reflects the company’s commitment to integrating health, financial literacy, and wellbeing programmes into its employee support framework.  

Image edited by Dinesh Raj M   Among the various topical discussions that took place at the 4th annual Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave 2026 held under the theme "Rewriting the Playbook for a Resilient Digital Future" on Thursday, one of the most pertinent was the one on how to get the Indian digital news subscriber to pay for quality content. With the explosion of digital outlets publishing news content reaching atomic proportions in the AI era, it is no secret that almost all traditional outlets publishing news content struggle to make their subscribers pay for their content while the same, or a slightly less-polished version, is available for free elsewhere and is just a click away. This is has now become even more complicated with internet browsers offering an AI-version of news that practically scrapes through all related content and gives its own version, a collage of everything that is out there on the topic. One of the speakers, Jaideep K

The Tripura High Court has refused to direct the filing of an FIR on a complaint by Ramchandraghat MLA Ranjit Debbarma against an electronic media outlet, stating that no prima facie cognisable offence was made out under the BNSS, 2023. According to Northeast Today.in, Justice Dr. T. Amarnath Goud dismissed the MLA’s plea challenging the closure report issued by West Agartala Police Station in a February 23 ruling. Debbarma had complained on October 26, 2025, that Tripura National and its editor Pranab Sarkar broadcast allegations that he possessed fake Bangladeshi identity documents. He claimed the report was deliberate and harmful, citing provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, SC/ST Act, and IT Act. Police carried out a preliminary enquiry under Section 173(3) BNSS and declined to file an FIR on November 8, 2025. The court ruled that defamation is non-cognizable, no forgery by the media was shown, and no offences under the SC/ST Act or IT Act were made out. It also cite

The countdown is officially on to the 24th Samsung Australian IT Journalism Awards, as Influencing celebrated the upcoming awards last night at Cisco's North Sydney office.  The night was filled with conversations, catch-ups and lovely food and drinks in addition to speeches from Cisco's Communications & PR Manager, Adela Amanowicz, and Influencing CEO Phil Sim.  "One of Influencing's strategic pillars in our 25th anniversary year is to provide as many networking and face-to-face opportunities as we can for our communities," said Phil Sim. "So we're really thankful for Cisco who hosted this event, and their agency Thrive who did much of the heavy lfiting, in order to provide our sponsors and entrants with a relaxed opportunity to connect prior to the awards". Sim said that entries are now in judging with finalists to be announced mid-March. For those looking to purchase tickets to this year's Lizzies awards, they

Morning, welcome to Friday and let's start with The Australian Financial Review, or more specifically with its lovely monthly magazine, the March issue of which comes out today along with the print issue. The main story in this glossy packed-with-ads-for-rich-people publication (Chanel, Hublot watches, etc) is also home to some first class editorial and photography, not least the main story which is an interview with Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic whose AI model Claude is at the forefront of evolving machine intelligence.   Now for those of you who are not tech-heads, I totally get it. I'm not one either, but as a colleague recently pointed out, "these days tech, and particularly AI, is in everything", which is true, like it or not. So much so that the AFR has been devoting ever more space to AI and AI-linked stories. One day I expect the financial bible to rename itself The Australian Financial &