Iran launched fresh attacks on US military infrastructure in Gulf states in retaliation for American strikes on its south and east regions, putting further strain on the three-week-old ceasefire. The attacks came the day Iran buried slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a shrine in Mashhad. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country was prepared to resume military action "with even greater force." US Central Command said it struck ~90 Iranian targets; Trump said on Truth Social attacks could "get much worse."
Centcom says it hit 90 Iranian targets in the latest round of strikes. The Iranian health ministry reports 14 people have been killed since Tuesday. Oil and gas shipping through the Strait of Hormuz declined sharply after the new attacks, with data showing fewer vessels taking the US-backed route.
Ukraine launched new strikes on Russian ships near occupied Crimea, escalating its campaign to choke off fuel supplies and military routes into and out of the peninsula. The attacks appear to be the latest phase of a sustained effort to disrupt Russia's Black Sea logistics and oil infrastructure.
A massive fire at a factory in China's shoe manufacturing hub has killed at least 28 people. Footage shows huge flames and thick black smoke rising from the building. The cause is under investigation.
The Welsh pop legend died in a hospital in Portugal after weeks of treatment for an unspecified illness. Tyler, known for her distinctive raspy voice, scored global hits including "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding Out for a Hero" and was Grammy-nominated three times.
A federal judge ordered Trump to pay an additional $5.8 million to writer E. Jean Carroll in the ongoing sex abuse and defamation case. Trump has appealed the ruling. The case has been through multiple rounds of litigation since the initial verdict in 2023.
Climate data confirms Western Europe recorded its hottest June in history, with temperatures exceeding previous records across multiple countries. The heatwave has exacerbated drought conditions and raised concerns about summer wildfire risk.
An internal ICC investigation file has found that the court's prosecutor engaged in sexual harassment, according to the New York Times. The finding raises serious questions about leadership at the international war crimes tribunal.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor launched his strongest attack yet on Pauline Hanson, telling the Sydney Institute that just four One Nation policies would cost the economy a trillion dollars over a decade and add $20,000/year in interest to the average mortgage. He accused Senator Hanson of running a "one person show" with a "random grab bag" of policies, while also attacking Labor's "big government agenda" and pledging to reverse negative gearing and CGT changes.
Indian PM Narendra Modi addressed more than 20,000 people at Docklands Stadium alongside PM Albanese, declaring India "impatient" to grow and become one of the world's top three economies. He drew cheers celebrating India's precision strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan following the Kashmir attacks. Modi continues to New Zealand after one more day in Melbourne.
The ADF test-fired a ground-based air defence prototype at Woomera using a Standard Missile-2 (range 166km) guided by Australian radar to intercept a cruise missile target. The test comes days after China launched a nuclear-capable ICBM into the South Pacific. Defence plans to spend $7-10 billion over the next decade on integrated air and missile defences.
The economic cost of the Telstra network outage could run into hundreds of millions of dollars, an expert estimates. SA Police are investigating a death that occurred on the day of the outage. Telstra said a software defect in a GPS timing node caused the failure, with hundreds of Triple Zero calls failing. Services were restored by late afternoon.
Documents obtained by Guardian Australia show the NSW government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars unsuccessfully defending constitutional challenges against protest laws rushed through after the Bondi Beach attack, including $117,455.50 on a single challenge to the public assembly restriction declaration (Pard) laws. The laws were struck down by the state's highest court.
Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal told the royal commission there was a "common and pervasive perception" in the Jewish community that ABC and SBS Middle East coverage "lacked balance." She called for a new external oversight body. Both broadcasters defended their existing complaints processes and rejected the proposal, with ABC editorial director Gavin Fang pointing to the existing ombudsman and ACMA oversight.
Organised crime detectives seized control of an encrypted phone network allegedly used by Sydney's gangsters — including the Alameddine crime family and Coconut Cartel — to carry out drug deals, kidnappings and murders. On Thursday evening, detectives broadcast a message to 3,000 handsets warning that accounts had been linked to a criminal network.
Senior Liberal party figures held concerns about Christian Ellis — whose company represented fugitive developer Jean Nassif — long before the anti-corruption watchdog began its Operation Rosny investigation. The ICAC inquiry is examining links between property development donations and political decisions in NSW.
Broadsheet catalogues 15 notable Sydney hospitality closures so far this year, including the iconic two-hatted Bentley Restaurant & Bar (final service 29 August, after 20 years), Mary's Underground at Circular Quay (1,000+ shows since opening in 2019), Arthur in Surry Hills, and Bar Freda. The owners of Bentley are opening two new CBD venues in July ahead of the closure. The closure wave reflects ongoing pressure on Sydney's fine dining and live music sectors.
Broadsheet's annual food festival returns July 27 - August 2 with 50 events across the city, in partnership with Mastercard and Doordash. Highlights include a dinner with Melbourne's "hummus king," Neil Perry's seafood dinner at Felons in Manly, Apollo Group chef Oscar Solomon's exclusive pop-up at Firepop, and Japanese-themed menus across multiple venues.
Matthew Jukes released his annual 100 Best Australian Wines review, a key reference for the wine trade. The publication is widely regarded by sommeliers and collectors. The review includes detailed tasting notes and regional breakdowns from Australia's top producers.
Wine Australia and the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) entered into a new investment agreement from 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2030, delivering research, development, extension and industry support for Australia's grape and wine sector. The agreement covers strategic RD&E for the industry's long-term competitiveness.
The two-hatted Bentley Restaurant and Bar in the Sydney CBD will serve its final meal on 29 August 2026 after two decades at the top of Sydney's fine dining scene. Owners Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt are opening two new venues in the CBD this July, and plan to relaunch Bentley in a new form in 2027-2028.
Paolo Saccone MS (LUCAS Restaurants, NSW) won the 2026 Sommelier Challenge at a black-tie dinner at Lee Ho Fook in Sydney, following an intensive day of national finals at Infinity by Mark Best in Sydney Tower. He will represent Australia at the ASI Best Sommelier of the World competition in Lisbon, Portugal, 11-17 October 2026.
Minister for the Arts Tony Burke announced funding for three major organisations to strengthen Australia's international cultural standing. The Australian Youth Orchestra, Back to Back Theatre (Geelong's internationally acclaimed disability-led theatre company), and the Australian Ballet have each secured funding tied to high-profile engagements abroad. Specific amounts were not detailed in the announcement, but the funding targets projects that showcase Australian artistic excellence on the global stage.
The Visions of Australia program has announced approximately $1.4 million in funding for Australian galleries, museums and cultural institutions for touring exhibitions starting after 1 July 2026. The program supports both the touring of existing exhibitions and the development of new exhibitions for touring, aimed at bringing arts and culture to communities across regional and remote Australia.
An ABC feature explores how Indigenous musicians are redefining classical music in Australia, blending traditional sounds with Western orchestral forms. The piece profiles artists including soprano Nina Korbe performing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, highlighting the growing presence of First Nations voices in Australia's classical music institutions.
Applications for the Multicultural NSW Stronger Together Grants Program close at 4pm on Monday 13 July 2026. The program supports multicultural festivals and events across NSW that foster community harmony and celebrate cultural diversity. A reminder for any arts or community organisations with projects aligned to multicultural programming.
Meta launched Muse Spark 1.1 — the first Spark model to offer an API. Significant improvements in agentic tool calling and computer use are claimed. Simon Willison built an LLM plugin (llm-meta-ai) for CLI access within hours. The model's evaluation report highlights "attractor states in self-conversation" where two copies of the model produced existential-sounding dialogue. Available via Meta AI API.
The New York Times, along with other major publishers, has asked a federal court to penalize OpenAI in the ongoing copyright infringement case. The publishers allege OpenAI used their copyrighted content without permission to train its AI models. This is a significant escalation in the legal battle between news organisations and AI companies over training data.
Nous Research shipped Hermes Agent v0.18.2 (2026.7.7.2), a same-day patch following v0.18.1, fixing the WhatsApp Baileys dependency by switching from a pinned git commit to the published 7.0.0-rc13 release. This improves install reliability and tagged-release Docker builds. The "Judgment Release" (v0.18.0, Jul 1) had closed all 496 P0/P1 issues — now at v0.18.2, the release train remains active on minor patches.
Artificial Analysis' July 2026 leaderboard shows Claude Fable 5 (Intelligence Index: 64) holding the top spot since returning from its 19-day federal suspension. OpenAI previewed GPT-5.6 Sol, claiming 750 tokens/sec on Cerebras hardware at $5/1M input (half Claude's price), beating Fable 5 on Terminal-Bench. Chinese models MiniMax 3 and Qwen 3.7 Max match Western flagships on speed at near-zero token prices.