“The worst thing possible for Hinge is for people to fall in love,” says Australian writer Alistair Kitchen, who has created his own app to rival it.

Unemployment lifted in September, before the Reserve Bank’s most recent rate hike, ABS figures show.

Worries about worsening inflation are weighing on Wall Street and pulling the US stock market further from its record.

Eucalyptus co-founder Tim Doyle expects some women to baulk at the American brand, but says Hers will turn Juniper into a full women’s health clinic.

Drivers have not faced pump prices this high in Australia since the opening weeks of the conflict. And things are unlikely to change until the situation is resolved

OpenAI said it will raise $US30 billion ($43 billion) in a private funding round valuing the company at $US1.4 trillion, even as it delayed the release of GPT6.1 Astra after tests found it behaved more deceptively than earlier models. Anthropic, moving ahead with its own listing, devoted about 80 pages of its prospectus to risk factors, including warnings that its models could resist shutdown, according to the report. The filing also says the company will provide cyber-defence credits for institutional customers.

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac have followed Macquarie in passing the Reserve Bank’s 25-basis-point rate rise on to mortgage customers. The move adds to borrowers’ costs after three rate rises earlier this year. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data show total offset account balances stood at A$340 billion for the June quarter, down from the March quarter.

The Reserve Bank of Australia announced its fourth interest-rate increase of 2026, lifting the cash rate to 4.60%, the highest level in 15 years. Governor Michele Bullock attributed inflation pressures to domestic demand, while the government said it has cut A$64 billion in spending to help curb inflation. The Australian dollar briefly strengthened after the decision before giving back gains as markets weighed the risk of slower economic growth.

Global oil stockpiles are being drawn down at a record pace, with the International Energy Agency estimating inventories have fallen by 507 million barrels since the conflict began. Disruptions have escalated as Ukrainian attacks have severely damaged Russia’s refining sector, which typically accounts for 4 per cent of global capacity, while China is preparing to lift crude imports. In Australia, average petrol prices have jumped nearly 40 per cent since July to above $2.30 a litre and diesel has risen nearly 60 per cent to $2.88, heightening concern about further increases.