Australia
Business
Sydney colour-cube maker CMY Cubes wins spot in Korea's state accelerator
CMY Cubes, a Sydney startup that makes translucent colour-mixing cubes, polyhedrons and optical puzzles grounded in real colour science, has been selected for the 2026 K-Startup Grand Challenge, South Korea's flagship government accelerator run by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
Work
Small business workers win right to refuse after-hours contact
Every small business owner in Australia who has ever sent a Sunday-night text to a staff member now operates under a different legal reality.
Finance
Small businesses pay 6% to borrow, big companies pay 4%
The average interest rate on an outstanding variable-rate smaller loan to a small or medium business sits around 6.0 per cent, against roughly 5.0 per cent for larger business loans and 4.0 per cent for loans to large companies. Most of that gap is about security, not size.
Business
Telstra lifts dividend 10.5% and launches $1bn buyback
Telstra set its full-year cash dividend at 21 cents per share, up 10.5 per cent on the prior year, with a final payment of 10.5 cents on 13 August. The company also announced a new on-market buyback of up to $1 billion, following the $1.25 billion programme it completed in June.
Sport
Tanzid century puts Bangladesh 153 ahead of Australia in Darwin
Bangladesh closed day two at 351 for 6 in Darwin, 153 ahead, after Tanzid Hasan became just the second Asian batter to score a century in a maiden Test innings in Australia.
Finance
Housing power shift: fastest price falls since 2022 put buyers in charge
Eleven weeks of sub-50 per cent auction clearances handed buyers the upper hand this winter. Values fell 0.7 per cent in July, and even last weekend's bounce left clearances 18 points below a year ago.
Politics
Japan's ambassador rebukes Albanese over melon joke
When Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visited Australia in May 2026, she presented Anthony Albanese with a Shizuoka Crown melon cultivated under the strict "One Tree, One Fruit" greenhouse method, in which each vine yields a single high-grade fruit.
Politics
Court blocks Australia’s online safety regulator from double-regulating X
The Federal Court has ruled X cannot sit under two online safety regimes at once, exposing a structural flaw in how the regulator chose to police the platform.
Opinion
Why taxpayers are paying $2.5 billion to keep a Rio Tinto smelter open
There is a particular kind of political announcement that arrives dressed as generosity but is, on closer inspection, a confession. The joint federal and New South Wales commitment of A$2.5 billion to underwrite power costs at Tomago Aluminium is that kind of announcement.
