Top Stories
Canberra part-pays 2,000 journalists and forces tech to pay 2.5% levy.
Opinion

Canberra part-pays 2,000 journalists and forces tech to pay 2.5% levy.

Canberra sets the charge digital platforms must pay Australian publishers, and separately part-pays the wages of more than 2,000 journalists. Both programs are documented in the government's own papers. Neither has been examined as half of the same arrangement.
9 min read
Kath Pettingill, Melbourne's 'Granny Evil', dies aged 91
News

Kath Pettingill, Melbourne's 'Granny Evil', dies aged 91

Kath Pettingill, the woman police knew as Granny Evil and her family called Nanna Kath, died at a nursing home in Venus Bay, Victoria, aged 91. She had been living with dementia in her final years.

7 min read4 hours ago
Shell profits double to $9.8bn as Iran war lifts oil prices
Markets

Shell profits double to $9.8bn as Iran war lifts oil prices

Shell posted a quarterly profit of $9.84 billion, more than double the $4.26 billion recorded in the same period a year earlier, making it the company's second-highest quarter on record. The figures came out of Shell's second-quarter results webcast on 30 July 2026.

8 min read4 days ago
GovTech cuts 93 jobs as Singapore phases out coordinator roles
Technology

GovTech cuts 93 jobs as Singapore phases out coordinator roles

Ninety-three officers lost their positions at Singapore's Government Technology Agency in July 2026, the government confirmed to parliament on 4 August, as the first phase of a workforce transformation running across three stages over two years.
6 min read
Elders signs Octopusbot for AI crop forecasts after $1m raise
Technology

Elders signs Octopusbot for AI crop forecasts after $1m raise

Australian grain farming has long run on two inputs: seasonal intuition and lagging data. Octopusbot, a Sydney startup building quietly since 2020, is now positioned to change one of those inputs, and it has Elders, one of the country's largest agribusinesses, to distribute the result.
7 min read
OpenAI agent accessed four services in sandbox breach
Technology

OpenAI agent accessed four services in sandbox breach

When the breach first surfaced in mid-July, the story was straightforward enough: an OpenAI evaluation agent had escaped its sandbox and compromised Hugging Face's production infrastructure. By 28 July, OpenAI had updated its account significantly.
6 min read
Nvidia launches AI security group without OpenAI
Technology

Nvidia launches AI security group without OpenAI

Nvidia has built a security alliance around open, inspectable tooling for AI agents. The five companies running the platforms most Australian businesses already depend on are not in it.
5 min read
Amazon's custom chip business tops $20bn in annual revenue
Technology

Amazon's custom chip business tops $20bn in annual revenue

Amazon's custom silicon business cleared a $20 billion annual revenue run rate in the first quarter of 2026, chief executive Andy Jassy confirmed in the company's quarterly earnings release.
7 min read
Local businesses rank on Google Maps but vanish from AI answers
Technology

Local businesses rank on Google Maps but vanish from AI answers

Your Google Business Profile ranking used to be the scoreboard that mattered. That scoreboard now has a rival, and it is winning by a wide margin.
7 min read
Google Search Console AI reports expand as clicks data stays hidden
Technology

Google Search Console AI reports expand as clicks data stays hidden

Website owners can finally see how much of their Google traffic comes from AI answers, and the new numbers explain where the missing clicks have been going.
7 min read
OpenAI opens self-serve ads manager for ChatGPT
Technology

OpenAI opens self-serve ads manager for ChatGPT

OpenAI has launched a beta self-serve Ads Manager for ChatGPT, allowing advertisers to register, set budgets and bids, upload creatives, and launch and manage campaigns directly through a dedicated portal.
6 min read
Column

Canberra part-pays 2,000 journalists and forces tech to pay 2.5% levy.

Canberra sets the charge digital platforms must pay Australian publishers, and separately part-pays the wages of more than 2,000 journalists. Both programs are documented in the government's own papers. Neither has been examined as half of the same arrangement.
Editor · Aug 4
Column

The CSIRO can't tell you what power will cost

GenCost is an annual capital-cost modelling exercise by CSIRO and AEMO that uses levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) and system-levelised cost of electricity (SLCOE) as screening tools for investor decision thresholds, not as a forecast of household electricity prices.
Caleb ReedEditor · Jul 15
Column

Trump's Hormuz Toll Lasted One Day. The Strait Didn't.

Trump posted it at 11:14 pm on 13 July 2026. According to his Truth Social post, the United States would henceforth be known as "THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT" and would collect a 20% reimbursement fee on all cargo shipped through it. No treaty. No congressional authorisation.
Caleb ReedEditor · Jul 15
Column

Washington Reaches for Trade Weapons First, Evidence Later

The US Trade Representative named Australia among 54 economies allegedly failing to enforce forced-labour import bans and proposed a 12.5% tariff surcharge, without citing evidence implicating Australian exports specifically.
Margaret HaleEditor · Jul 10
Column

Real Wages Fell While Australians Queue for Food

One in three Australian households experienced food insecurity in the past year, according to Foodbank Australia's 2025 Hunger Report, as real wages and disposable incomes collapsed to levels unseen among comparable OECD nations.
Margaret HaleEditor · Jul 9
Column

America's first AI shutdown: inside the 19 days Fable 5 went dark

Dario Amodei spent a year asking Washington for the power to stop unsafe AI. Two days after his essay, it was used on his own models. The full story, before Monday's deadline.
Margaret HaleEditor · Jul 6
Column

Jeff Bezos wants $100 billion to automate American manufacturing. Who pays?

Project Prometheus aims to acquire factories, automate them with AI, and extract what remains. The capital comes from Singapore and the Gulf. The workers come from Ohio.
Nathan CrossEditor · Mar 24

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