Two powerful earthquakes — known as a "doublet" — struck Venezuela, levelling buildings in Caracas and its outskirts. At least 188 dead, 157 missing. Rescuers continue searching collapsed structures for survivors in what is emerging as one of Latin America's deadliest quake events in decades. The UN has paused Strait of Hormuz ship evacuations amid the crisis.
Anthropic revealed in a letter to US senators that Alibaba-linked operators generated over 28.8 million exchanges with Claude using 25,000 fraudulent accounts, targeting agentic reasoning and software engineering capabilities. The attacks occurred April–June, after Trump warned that cloning attempts were "unacceptable." Anthropic is calling for stronger export controls and updated antitrust laws to fight Chinese model distillation.
Days after launching new frontier models Mythos 5 and Fable 5, Anthropic was forced to disable them entirely following a US Commerce Department directive. The administration cited concerns about a jailbreak that could bypass safeguards around cybersecurity and biology. Anthropic disagreed with the move, saying the "narrow potential jailbreak" shouldn't halt model deployment, but complied with the legal directive.
The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Trump administration on two immigration cases, clearing the way to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals. In separate rulings, the court also struck down a Hawaii law requiring permits to carry guns in stores and hotels, and blocked thousands of Roundup lawsuits against Bayer.
A day after the Senate passed a war powers resolution rebuking Trump on Iran, Senate Republicans voted it down after the president personally berated them at a closed-door Capitol meeting. The rapid reversal highlights growing intra-party division over Trump's Iran strategy, with Marco Rubio separately hailing US-Gulf Arab unity despite regional concerns.
The record-breaking European heatwave that pushed France to its hottest-ever national average (30°C) is shifting eastward. France warned that even young, healthy people are at risk from the extreme temperatures. Britain swelters in record June heat as the "heat dome" continues its march across the continent.
As One Nation's influence grows under Pauline Hanson's "monoculture" push, a scramble is underway among political operatives seeking to bridge the gap between mainstream parties and Hanson's movement. Paterson described Hanson's vision as "deeply weird," while Labor's Jim Chalmers accused Angus Taylor of trying to "out-One Nation One Nation." The media landscape continues shifting around Hanson amid the Stefanovic fallout.
Prime Minister Albanese has conceded to crossbencher David Pocock's demands on a key bill, with Pocock declaring "this should have been sorted out" earlier. The concession marks a win for the independent senator and signals the government's need to negotiate with crossbench votes in a tight parliament.
Labor has struck a tax deal with the Greens to close a superannuation loophole, with the Greens arguing the changes target wealth inequality. Critics of the deal — including Geoff Wilson, who deleted an anti-immigration AI video — say the changes are already impacting wealth inequality calculations. The deal is a crucial win for Labor but its NDIS changes could come at a political cost.
Australia is flagging a strengthening of its social media ban, citing concerns about violence against young women. The PM's comments reference cases where victims have been "choked," as the government pushes for stronger platform accountability and age verification measures.
A new class action alleges that women working at remote Fortescue mining sites were subjected to rape and stalking. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of cases highlighting the pervasive issue of sexual violence and harassment in Australia's mining sector, particularly at fly-in-fly-out operations.
Qantas has cancelled its Alice Springs to Melbourne route, citing high operational costs and declining passenger demand. The move reduces connectivity for Central Australia and raises concerns about the viability of regional air services in the Northern Territory.
A proposed tower double the current height limit threatens to overshadow several heritage-listed buildings in Sydney's CBD. The development has sparked debate about density, heritage preservation, and planning controls in the city centre.
The founder of beloved Newtown pizzeria Rolling Penny has opened Nest, a new day-to-night venue in Sydney. The new concept signals a move beyond pizza toward a broader all-day dining offering, a trend increasingly popular across Sydney's inner west dining scene.
A Leichhardt institution that has been operating for 27 years has opened a second location, expanding its reach beyond its iconic original site. The move reflects confidence in Sydney's hospitality recovery despite ongoing cost pressures on operators.
A new review puts Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill to the test, asking whether the iconic Sydney steakhouse still delivers. The verdict comes as the fine dining landscape shifts with new entrants and changing diner expectations in the post-pandemic era.
A new retro-style diner in the Sydney CBD is serving up honey pancakes and Coke floats with a gimmick-driven experience that reviewers say is actually worth queuing for. The venue taps into the enduring nostalgia trend in Sydney's hospitality scene.
Luke Nguyen's new restaurant at the Sydney Fish Market is using a three-time "world's best rice" variety, showcasing premium Australian and Southeast Asian ingredients. The opening adds to the growing dining precinct at the revitalised Fish Market.
The Real Review reports that sommelier Osbeiston will curate the wine program for a luxury Hunter Valley hotel development. The appointment signals a continued premiumisation of Hunter Valley's hospitality offerings, relevant for RSN's wine industry territory.
Australian wine professional Sebastian Iannuzzi has won a prestigious WSET global award, recognising exceptional achievement in the wine and spirits education field. The award highlights Australia's growing presence in global wine education and certification.
The Real Review's Taste the Top Wineries event is coming to Sydney, alongside a Top Wineries of Australia Dinner. The events showcase Australia's highest-rated wineries and are a key fixture for hospitality and wine industry professionals — directly relevant to RSN's B2B channel.
David Hockney, one of the most celebrated and influential artists of the 20th century — famed for his swimming pool paintings, Yorkshire landscapes, and iPad drawings — has died at 88. His death marks the end of an era in British and international art. Hockney was known for his relentless creativity, saying he would "keep painting until the very end." His legacy spans six decades of reinvention across painting, drawing, photography, and digital art.
Creative Australia's latest National Arts Participation Survey, Creative Transformations, reveals 74% of Australians attended at least one live arts event or festival in the past year — 15.4 million people, the highest level recorded since 2009. However, 60% cited cost as the biggest barrier, and over half missed events they wanted to attend due to cost. The survey also found that Australians who received arts education during school years are significantly more likely to participate as adults, with arts access for children now the top public investment priority.
Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk has been awarded the 2026 Mordant Family and Creative Australia Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Pinchuk's practice explores data-mapping, conflict topographies, and the legacies of literature. The Fellowship — supported since 2016 by the Mordant Family and Creative Australia — provides Australian visual artists time and space to undertake ambitious new work at one of the world's most significant creative institutions. Previous recipients include Khaled Sabsabi, Reko Rennie, and Jenny Watson.
Music Australia's The Bass Line 2nd edition reveals Australia's music industry generated $10.76 billion in revenue in 2024–25, contributing $4.28 billion in direct GVA. The companion report More Than Notes on a Page shows music education generates $1.79 billion in revenues — contributing more to GVA than live performance. The research highlights growing pressure on artists and businesses despite 5.2% revenue growth, with exports growing only 1.9% and artist income just 0.9%.
A proposed $290 million film studio development on a former cow paddock in Perth aims to attract Hollywood productions to Western Australia. The project would position Perth as a competitive destination for international film production, leveraging the state's landscapes and tax incentives. The studio's viability hinges on securing major international productions and navigating WA's remoteness.
A new exhibition at an Australian gallery explores the deep connection between soccer and immigration in Australia's cultural history. The show examines how migrant communities have shaped the sport, and how soccer has served as a vehicle for cultural identity and integration — a particularly timely theme during the 2026 World Cup.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are transforming discarded fishing nets — "ghost nets" — into powerful artworks that highlight the devastating impact of ocean plastic pollution. The initiative combines environmental activism with Indigenous cultural practice, producing works that have been displayed at major galleries.
SpaceX will acquire AI coding tool Cursor for $60 billion in an all-stock deal, coming just days after SpaceX's unprecedented IPO and months after the SpaceX/xAI merger. Cursor — a VS Code fork with deep LLM integration — has lost market share to Anthropic's Claude Code and was struggling to break even. The acquisition positions SpaceX to compete directly with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google in the enterprise coding AI space.
Sanders' proposed legislation would create a sovereign wealth fund financed through a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies (those with $200M+ in AI revenue). The fund could be worth $7 trillion, with every American receiving over $1,000 annually in dividends. Seven members of a bipartisan Independent Commission for Democratic AI would oversee the fund with voting shares that could block corporate decisions harming the public. The plan faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress.
Audited financial statements obtained by Ed Zitron show OpenAI's revenues grew from $3.7B (2024) to $13.07B (2025), but R&D costs hit $19.18B — including $10.59B paid to Microsoft. Total operating loss was $20.92B in 2025, with $39B headline net loss (including $30B non-recurring accounting charge). OpenAI is telling investors it hopes to be profitable by 2030, but faces pressure from enterprise customers questioning ROI and rival Anthropic's pricing.
Anthropic abruptly paused planned billing changes that would have shifted Claude Agent SDK usage to API pricing, saving heavy users from massive cost increases. The move, set for June 15, would have treated agent SDK usage separately from standard subscription plans. One analysis found Claude Opus users could save up to hundreds of dollars per month under the old system. Anthropic says it's "working to update the plan" — a reprieve that came on the heels of GitHub Copilot's own contentious token-based billing rollout.
IBM has announced what it claims is the world's first sub-1 nanometer chip technology, a breakthrough that could dramatically shrink transistor sizes and improve energy efficiency for AI and general-purpose computing. The development represents a major leap in semiconductor manufacturing, though commercial production remains years away.
A group of major Hollywood stars including Clooney, Hanks, and Streep have endorsed a new "Human Consent Standard" for AI licensing of creative works. The initiative aims to establish a framework requiring AI companies to obtain explicit consent from artists, actors, and writers before using their work for model training — directly relevant to thest.art's mission around artist rights in the digital age.
The WNBA has suspended Alyssa Thomas for one game after a controversial hit to Caitlin Clark's throat during a game. The incident has sparked debate about player safety and enforcement.
Researchers have demonstrated AI coding agents autonomously directing robots to perform physical tasks — installing GPUs and cutting zip ties — marking a step toward AI-controlled physical infrastructure management.
An analysis of how the deeply divided United States is finding common cause on one issue, and what that means for Australia by extension.
Hermes Agent v0.17.0 is now available, following the v0.16.0 "Surface Release" from early June which introduced the new Hermes Desktop App. The latest version continues bug fixes and feature enhancements for the agent framework.
A New York rape charge against Harvey Weinstein has been dropped after the accuser stated she could not endure a fourth trial. The development marks a significant turn in the long-running Weinstein legal saga.