Iran-aligned Houthi forces have captured the volcanic island of Perim (Mayun) in the Bab al-Mandab strait, hot on the heels of taking the port city of Mocha — putting them in control of a choke point that funnels roughly 12% of global goods between Asia and Europe. Combined with Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, it would hand anti-Western forces control of the two main routes for shipping oil out of the Middle East. Brent crude pushed past US$108, its highest since May; Saudi Arabia has launched air raids on Mocha and assembled a 14-country naval coalition that has so far been "invisible", while British sources say Washington is unlikely to bomb Houthi positions. The offensive has killed more than 500 and displaced about 46,000.
US bond yields pushed toward 5% for the first time since 2007 as investors dumped stocks and bonds over the "deadly cocktail" of high oil, American fiscal irresponsibility and fears around Federal Reserve independence. Trump's pledge of a US$5,000 "dividend" to every adult if Republicans win the midterms deepened alarm about the deficit. The knock-on dragged Australia's 10-year rate to 5.38% — a 15-year high — and markets now price an 80% chance the RBA hikes again on 29 September.
BRICS leaders gather in Delhi this weekend, with India chairing an expanded, deeply divided bloc. Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Iran's Pezeshkian all descend on the Indian capital amid the Middle East and Ukraine wars, but sharp rifts over the US-China rivalry, Russia-Ukraine and Iran mean a unified anti-Washington response is unlikely. Trump's vocal opposition to de-dollarisation looms over proceedings.
The US held anniversary tributes in New York, Washington and Shanksville, with a fresh memorial for first responders and survivors with lasting health impacts. President Trump used a 9/11 memorial speech to argue the case for the ongoing war with Iran, framing the conflict as an extension of the broader fight against Iranian-backed threats since the 2001 attacks.
Rescuers finally boarded the ferry off Coron, the Philippines, some 40 hours after the blaze broke out — battling thick toxic fumes and extreme heat. At least 35 people have been confirmed dead and authorities are checking whether any foreigners were aboard the vessel, afloat in a diving and island-hopping hotspot.
Petrol prices on the east coast are set to push from about $2.10 to near $2.30 a litre over coming weeks, with diesel — the cost that feeds through the economy and inflation directly — rising 10–30c from over $2.50, per CBA's commodities desk. The trigger is the oil spike above US$108 on the Houthi/Hormuz disruption. The RBA faces growing pressure, with a fourth rate hike now priced at 80% for 29 September — real bite for mortgage holders and the hospitality trade that runs on diesel-led supply chains.
The government has dropped plans for new packaging legislation designed to cut plastic waste, a move campaigners and crossbenchers branded an unprecedented-scale broken promise. With environment groups warning Australia is backsliding on a widely supported pledge, the walk-back is shaping as a fresh political wound for the Albanese government.
Australia is moving to lift the ban on plug-in solar panels, opening the door for apartment dwellers and renters who've missed out on the rooftop boom. For the first time, balcony and window-mounted plug-in units would be broadly available, letting a significant slice of households chip away at power bills around a cost-of-living squeeze.
Exclusive FoI documents show senior health officials were warned about the aged-care assessment algorithm weeks after it launched, and that clinicians are now advising dementia patients not to apply for home care for fear the tool will slash their funding. It's a fresh credibility problem for the government's aged-care technology rollout.
The Coalition is openly divided over Andrew Hastie's bare-knuckle fight with Pauline Hanson, with Tony Abbott saying One Nation would be "right" to remove a poster branding the Liberal MP a "traitor". The war that erupted last week has become a test of how far mainstream conservatives will go in confronting One Nation — and what it costs them electorally.
The 2026 NSW Sommelier's Wine List of the Year winners were announced this week, with the top award going to Shun Eto at Altitude Restaurant — NSW Wine noting it "took something special to rise to the top" in a deep field. A second consecutive strong showing for the state's restaurants backing NSW wines. Directly relevant to the hospitality channel: these awards are the trade marker for how seriously a venue's wine list is taken.
Charlie and Virginie Colosi have opened Grappa's second outpost in the original Rockpool site on George Street, the 107–109 George Street building vacant since 2022, after 26 years at the beloved Leichhardt original. All pasta, pizza, bread and desserts made in house at the 1860s bakehouse, keeping the family approach to Italian food, wine and hospitality — a notable fill of a prime CBD site.
Sydney chef Alex Prichard has finally opened his long-planned Shoalhaven restaurant this week, stepping out of the city orbit into the regional fine-dining scene. The launch is one of the more anticipated Sydney-region openings of the season for Good Food followers.
Broadsheet's Sydney coming-soon list flags XO Bakehouse, French pastries and Greek staples like spanakopita plus weekly bread and haloumi from the founder's mum's recipes, and Ele by Federico and Karl — a team effort from the Lumi's alumni. Plenty of movement at the coalface of Sydney's food scene heading into spring.
Music Australia has announced $1.73 million in matched funding across two initiatives — the Record Label Development Scheme and the inaugural Marketing & Manufacturing Grants — supporting 23 labels from local independents to major subsidiaries. Recipients span Butter Sessions, Central Station Records, Earshift Music, Mushroom Music, Sweat It Out, NLV Records, UNIFIED and Wonderlick among others, funding new professional recordings, artwork, marketing and promotional campaigns. Design to push Australian recorded music — and local artists — toward genuine commercial breakthrough.
Ten new exhibitions will tour the country after the latest Visions of Australia/NTC funding round delivered $1.4 million to galleries, museums and cultural institutions, with a fresh application round now open for projects starting after 1 July 2026. It's the mechanism that gets material from our National Collecting Institutions out to regional communities — a quiet but steady well of federal arts money.
Alice Springs' Desert Mob festival is marking half a century of the land rights movement through its art award, with First Nations artists using the platform to centre Country and sovereignty. The festival is a key moment in the Indigenous art calendar and a reminder of how cultural funding and recognition dovetail with the politics of land and self-determination — squarely relevant to thest.art's mission and the broader First Nations art economy.
Anthropic said it disrupted several attempts this year by researchers to use its AI models for biological research that could aid weapons development — including Iran-linked cases — leading it to ban accounts and strengthen safeguards in its latest models. The company said it also blocked misuse for cyber and surveillance operations, scams, fraud and conventional weapons development. A tangible instance of the frontier-lab safety question becoming operational policy.
OpenAI has put GPT-Live-1 into the API, aimed at building more natural, low-latency real-time voice experiences. It slots alongside the company's agent push around GPT-6 Astra (now also live on Amazon Bedrock), and follows the rollout of Astra-family "latest" aliases across OpenRouter. Worth benchmarking against your voice use-cases if you touch real-time audio agents.
Tokyo's Sakana AI released Fugu Max and Fugu Ultra v2 on OpenRouter, the latest Japanese-lab models riding the open-model wave. A reminder the mid-weight tier is moving fast outside the US-China axis — worth a look for anyone tracking non-frontier alternatives for cost-sensitive projects.
Nothing new since the v0.21 line (v0.21.1). Your current install is current — no upgrade action needed. Will keep an eye on the Nous GitHub for the next feature drop and flag it the moment it lands.