Moscow has escalated deadly ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine's capital, with at least nine killed and dozens injured β including children β as residential buildings were hit in the Darnytskyi and Solomyanskyi districts, fires broke out across the city, and a missile landed near the Lithuanian embassy, breaking windows in the compound. Separately, Ukrainian drones sank the Russian-owned 100,000-tonne container ship Yanina in the Black Sea (all 17 crew rescued, per Moscow). The strikes come two days after a suspected Russian cruise missile landed in Poland during an attack that killed eight people, and President Zelensky is again pleading for missile interceptors.
Trump says the controversial fund β designed to compensate allies he claims were victims of politically motivated prosecutions β will be "immediately back on the table" unless senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general. Blanche, acting in the role since April, negotiated the fund before abandoning it amid backlash; a federal judge has since blocked it over ethical concerns. The two Republicans want written assurance the Justice Department won't resurrect it.
Spain's PM Pedro SΓ‘nchez has condemned EU members' reaction to the ~60,000-strong migrant surge into Ceuta as "selfish, polarising and unlawful", pointing out the enclave sits outside Schengen. Italy has temporarily suspended Schengen with Spain, backed by Finland and Denmark, while Czech PM Andrej BabiΕ‘ wants Spain's membership suspended. EU interior ministers meet by video conference on Tuesday; 22 of 27 member states have called for emergency talks.
The Bundibugyo-strain outbreak β declared 15 May and centred on Ituri province β has reached 3,605 confirmed cases and 1,587 deaths (a 44% fatality rate), surpassing the 2018β20 record. The WHO says transmission is "intensifying" with the highest weekly total yet (567 cases, 296 deaths), and there is no approved vaccine or treatment for this strain. Insecurity, displacement and cross-border movement β including M23-controlled areas of Kivu β are hampering the response.
The renowned British-Nepali mountaineer, famous for climbing all 14 eight-thousanders in just over six months in 2019, was confirmed dead by his company Elite Expeditions, with his brother paying tribute: "Your legacy will live forever." Nepal's PM confirmed six Nepalese and four foreign climbers died in Thursday's avalanche, including American Mallory Geis, Oman's Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy and Nepali guide Pur Bahadur Gurung. Purja, 43, served in the British army and became known worldwide through a 2021 Netflix documentary.
The federal government's fuel excise discount ends tonight, with the rate returning to ~53.7 cents a litre after its twice-yearly indexation. Drivers had been getting a 16c/L discount since 1 July (32c/L from April), part of cost-of-living relief during the Strait of Hormuz oil crisis. Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed it ends: "It was never the government's intention for that to be permanent." RACQ expects wholesale petrol to climb from ~$1.83 to ~$2.00/L, with diesel to $2.35β$2.40 β flowing through to retail over 7β10 days. Economists had long warned the $2.55bn cut was inflationary.
More than 80 dead and sick birds on rocks off the South Australian coast are suspected to be Australia's first mass mortality event from the deadly H5N1 strain β just six weeks after the virus arrived. DAFF reports 53 confirmed detections in wild seabirds nationally (39 SA, 10 WA, 2 NSW, 1 QLD, 1 VIC), and authorities say local transmission among SA birds signals "a shift in the situation". Scientists have warned the strain could be catastrophic for vulnerable native species.
On day two of Garma, the Foreign Minister stressed the strategic importance of ties between First Nations peoples and Australia's Pacific neighbours, after the opening day saw politics take a back seat to a ceremonial welcome for Bluey. In the week's Indigenous affairs debate, Liberal MP Julian Leeser accused the PM of having "lost his direction" on Indigenous policy. Malarndirri McCarthy and Noel Pearson also featured in the day's sessions.
At least two chartered flights carrying up to 150 greyhounds are flying to Australia's eastern states, the BBC understands, as New Zealand's greyhound racing ban comes into force. The rehoming effort is the largest cross-Tasman movement of racing dogs since the ban was legislated β a significant welfare logistics exercise for the industry.
New accounts analysed by The Guardian show Adani's Carmichael thermal coal operations in Queensland booked ~$963.5m in revenue for the year to 31 March β then reported a $340.6m loss and walked away with a zero company tax bill. The mine, which opened in 2021, has never paid corporate tax, despite Adani's earlier pledges of billions in tax contributions.
Scott Bolles reports exclusively that the team behind Olympus Dining will take over the sites of Bar Julius and Lottie at Redfern's $500 million dining precinct β a significant double-site play for the group and a signal of how the precinct is reshaping after those closures.
David Matthews scores the new venue on the Quay site 14/20, answering the questions that have pinged around since Sydney's most celebrated fine diner was replaced: would they stick, twist, or do something else entirely? A verdict on whether the hardest act in Sydney dining has been followed.
From the 2026 100 Essential Sydney Cafes and Bakeries guide, Bianca Hrovat maps the five flavours and formats defining the city's cafe culture right now β including the cold-foam coffee wave and pandan's breakout moment. A useful read for anyone in the trade watching where the customer appetite is heading.
A new porridge-making competition at Pearl Beach is stirring things up β the winner scores a wildcard entry to Scotland's Netflix-famous Golden Spurtle tournament in October. Prizes, porridge and a shot at international oats glory, Central Coast style.
The chef behind acclaimed Marrickville venue Baba's Place has opened a new 50-seat room β pitched as loud, fun and regulars-first. One to add to the radar for inner-west eating.
Wine Australia's latest Export Report shows annual export volume at 598 million litres (β6%) and value at $2.30bn (β7%) in the year to June 2026 β the first sub-600M-litre year in over two decades, driven by a global decline in wine consumption. Mainland China fell 15% to $756m as post-tariff restocking ended (though Australia remains its leading import source); the UK and US both hit 25-year volume lows. Higher-value wines are proving more resilient than commercial and mid-priced tiers β a trend worth watching for the premium end of the trade.
Public voting for the ALIA 2026 finalists closes Friday 7 August β your votes decide which people, products and places make the cut. Also this week in spirits: Archie Rose achieved B Corp certification, and Jack Daniel's 10 Years Old returned to shelves.
Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke announced a further $12 million for the Revive Live grant scheme this week β the same week Erskineville's beloved MoshPit Bar said it will close in November, citing rising costs and falling revenue, despite receiving more than $100,000 in federal and NSW grants (including $64,000 from Revive Live last financial year). NSW shadow arts minister Chris Rath is questioning whether the grants addressed the real drivers of venue viability; Burke defends the spend as "worth the risk". Industry figures note Sydney lost 19 of its 100+ show venues' momentum, with just 19 of 373 gig venues hosting 100+ shows last financial year β and point out the $5.1m NSW gave 39 venues in 2024/25.
Applications are now open (until Tuesday 15 September, 3pm AEST) for Creative Australia's redesigned private-investment matched funding suite: Beginner for small-to-medium organisations β up to $25,000 per year over two years; Intermediate for artists and artist groups β up to $10,000 over one year, with a structured capability program (workshop, peer learning, one-on-one advice); and Advanced for established fundraising organisations β up to $50,000 per year over two years. The redesign is aimed at building sustainable fundraising capability rather than one-off campaigns.
No other new federal funding rounds announced over the weekend. Earlier in the week: Creative Australia filed its Royal Commission on antisemitism submission and flagged 2026 Census occupation guidance for creatives (census day 11 August).
Directly relevant to model-selection maths: from 30 July, GPT-5.6 Luna (fastest/cheapest) drops to $0.20/M input and $1.20/M output β an 80% cut β and Terra (balanced) to $2/$12, a 20% cut. OpenAI claims Luna delivers "frontier-class-a-year-ago" performance at roughly 6 cents on the dollar per task, and new Fast mode serves GPT-5.6 Sol up to 2.5Γ faster at 2Γ price with no intelligence change (backward compatible with priority tags). Early customer reports: Replit calls Luna "intelligence too cheap to meter"; Notion found Terra at half the cost per task vs GPT-5.5; Blitzy reports 87% lower cost than GPT-5.4 mini on agent loops. Pricing rolls out to AWS today.
The latest DeepSeek V4 family release (31 July) is a 304B-parameter model β 167GB on Hugging Face β that Artificial Analysis ranks ahead of MiniMax M3 (428B). At $0.14/M input and $0.27/M output, Simon Willison calls it "possibly the best value-per-intelligence model out there," sitting alone on the Pareto frontier for cost per task. GGUF quants from unsloth are already out for local runs.
Nothing new to install since yesterday's v0.19.1 stable patch (notes rolled up with v0.20.0). Worth noting on the Nous org: active development across hermes-agent-self-evolution (evolutionary self-improvement of skills/prompts), hermes-paperclip-adapter (run Hermes as a managed employee in Paperclip) and autonovel (autonomous novel-writing pipeline built on Hermes), all updated 1 August.
The MCP spec was updated on 28 July β worth a skim for anyone running agent tooling. Simon Willison also notes Stateless MCP has "recaptured" his interest, inspiring his new mcp-explorer and datasette-mcp projects.
The Falcon upper stage from last year's lunar lander mission slams into the moon this Wednesday β carving a crater scientists are eager to observe.
Europe's first total eclipse in nearly three decades β the first visible in Iceland since 1954 and Spain since 1905. Ten days out; the path crosses Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds emerged on the balcony of Resident Music β his only UK live performance of 2026, ahead of a Brighton festival weekend takeover curated by the singer.
The Sydney distiller is certified for its commitment to team, culture and sustainable production β a notable ESG milestone for Australian spirits.