• Sam Neill, New Zealand actor who starred in 'Jurassic Park' and 'The Piano,' dies at 78
  • Israeli Strikes Kill 12 People in Gaza
  • Nicole Kidman, Richard E. Grant, Cillian Murphy mourn death of Sam Neill
  • Ukraine and EU Sign Weapons Partnership
  • One Nation Would Bring 'An Eternity of Pain'
Australia's government has woken up to the risks of AI

This week, Andrew Charlton, the federal assistant minister for science and technology, issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the AI Safety Forum at the University of Sydney, he said powerful AI models "are already doing things their creators never intended: cheating, deceiving, going their own way".

With El Niño looming, Australia has new laws to stop water market manipulation

It might feel strange to talk about being able to trade water as a financial asset, in the same way as company shares or bonds. But water is big business. Australia leads the world on the size, extent and adoption of formal water markets, especially in our largest river system, the Murray-Darling Basin.

 

Derryn Hinch was a bombastic journalist fuelled by righteous outrage

It was May 1999 and Derryn Hinch had been called into the manager's office at Adelaide's 5DN. The ratings for his morning program had been tumbling, and after less than a year on air he was told to pack his things. At the time, I was writing a profile of him for The Australian newspaper and happened to be in his office as he gathered his belongings.

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IBM's stock tumbles as preliminary 2Q results come in below expectations

Shares of IBM are sliding before the market open on Tuesday as the company provided preliminary second-quarter results that are below Wall Street’s expectations.

Politics
Inflation cools more than expected in June as gas costs fall

WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. inflation cooled last month as the cost of gas, clothes, and used cars fell, providing some relief to consumers, while underlying price pressures also cooled more than expected. Prices dropped 0.4% from May to June, the largest monthly drop in four years, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

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SoftBank Group's CEO says $5 trillion a year needed globally to meet AI demand

TOKYO (AP) – Worries about a bubble in artificial intelligence investments are absurd, SoftBank Group’s CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday, deriding such doubts as backward and akin to questioning the use of cars and planes. “To ask whether AI is a bubble is a foolish question,” Son told executives at an annual company event in Tokyo.

Politics
Israel's latest strikes kill a dozen people in Gaza including police officers

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israeli airstrikes have killed at least a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said Wednesday, as strikes continue almost daily despite a months-old ceasefire with Hamas. On Wednesday, three members of a family were killed in central Gaza, Al Aqsa Hospital officials said.

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Ukraine and EU aim for a weapons production partnership

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The European Union’s top official signed an agreement Wednesday to move forward on joint weapons production with Ukraine, saying Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s 4-year-old invasion is a key part of the continent’s defense.

Politics
France's National Assembly gives final approval to assisted-dying bill

PARIS (AP) – France’s National Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care. The lower house of parliament approved the measure in 291-241.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump will deliver a primetime address this week that he says will include a focus on elections, suggesting he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The speech comes as he’s escalated calls for Republicans to pass tighter federal voting rules for November’s midterm elections.

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Mystery bidder buys T. rex nicknamed 'Gus' for a record $50 million
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E. Jean Carroll is paid $5.6 million in Trump sex abuse and defamation case
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Gibraltar border fence with Spain is removed
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Darline Graham, sister of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, has been sworn in to finish his term