Editor

Mahdi al-Mashat, chairman of the Houthi-led Supreme Political Council, declared the Bab el-Mandeb Strait closed to Saudi-linked shipping in late July 2026, framing the move as retaliation for Saudi Arabia's blockade of Yemen.

From 3 August 2026, the fuel excise rate returns to 52.6 cents per litre, up from the discounted 36.6 cents per litre that has applied since 1 July. The Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge rises in parallel, from 16.4 cents per litre back to 32.4 cents per litre on the same date.

Jacinta Allan pulled the pin on 28 July 2026, addressing caucus colleagues and the Victorian public in the same breath. "I have made the difficult decision to step aside as leader of the Labor Party and Premier of Victoria," Allan said.

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is running the AI for All Project competition, giving bidders until 11 August to pitch a general-purpose AI chatbot that would be free of charge and unlimited for every citizen before year's end.

Executive Order 14409 requires developers of covered frontier AI models to give the US federal government up to 30 days of confidential early access before any public release, subject to cybersecurity, insider-risk, intellectual property and nondisclosure safeguards.

Sendle is getting a second life. McKenna Worldwide Services has bought the collapsed parcel brand from liquidators and wants the small-business shipping service running again by September.

Roaming bill shock is the pitch: LeafySIM's destination-specific prepaid eSIMs let travellers buy their data before they fly, from a company small enough to answer its own support emails.

Neither Washington nor Tehran fired a shot for a second straight day, the longest quiet stretch in two weeks of war, as mediators edge both sides toward an interim ceasefire.

Australian dwelling values fell around 0.9% at the five-city aggregate level over the month to 17 July 2026, with the downturn broadening across nearly every major market. The slide is accelerating, not stabilising.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey delivered $52 million from IMAX screens across its opening weekend, representing 20 per cent of the film's total global debut.

Australia leads the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games medal table with 12 gold, 5 silver and 6 bronze, 23 medals in total, five days in. The Games run from 23 July to 2 August in Glasgow, Scotland, with athletes from 74 nations and territories competing across 10 sports for 645 medals.

The Tour de France has cut 44 kilometres from its final stage, with the police who would normally line the route redeployed to the wildfires burning through the country's south-west.