Anthropic is calling on major artificial intelligence labs to consider a ‌co-ordinated and verifiable pause in development, warning that rapid advances in the technology could soon allow AI systems to improve themselves faster than society can manage the risks.

The Claude creator ‌said AI’s ability to complete tasks on its own has been doubling roughly every four months and it was headed for “recursive self-improvement” – the point at which the technology can improve without human ‌intervention.

“If systems are capable of fully building their own successors, the ways we secure them, monitor them and shape their behaviour all grow much more important,” the startup said in a lengthy blog post on Thursday, adding that a pause would allow society to “deal with its immense implications”.

“We are not there yet, and recursive self-improvement is not inevitable. But it could come sooner than most institutions are prepared for,” Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark and Anthropic Institute lead Marina Favaro wrote in the post.

Fears that advanced AI systems may get ‌out of human control and ‌cause societal harm have risen ⁠as the technology becomes increasingly capable.

Anthropic’s own Mythos model sent shock waves through industries including banking and software earlier this ​year with its ability to find vulnerabilities in existing code.

But regulation has been slow, especially in the United States where most leading AI labs are based. 

US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this week put the onus on the labs themselves, asking them to voluntarily submit their most capable models for government cybersecurity testing before public release.

AI researchers have also urged a pause before but had little success. 

Elon Musk, who owns AI lab xAI, was among backers of a 2023 push by the non-profit Future of Life Institute to halt AI development for ⁠six months to allow time for safety guardrails.

Anthropic has long positioned itself as a ‌safety-focused AI lab. 

Earlier this ​year, it refused to let the US military use its models for domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, prompting backlash from the government which put it on a national ​security blacklist, set ‌to take effect later in 2026.

Reuters reported on Friday the dispute was showing signs of easing across parts of the US government.

Still, Anthropic has continued to release ​increasingly powerful models and in February walked back a key safety pledge, saying that it would no longer hold back potentially dangerous AI if rivals were close to matching its capabilities.

It was recently valued at $US965 billion ($A1.4 trillion) in a massive funding round and confidentially filed for a US initial public offering on Monday, putting it ​ahead ​of rival OpenAI in both valuation and the race to secure crucial ​funding.

Anthropic’s Thursday post cautioned that unilateral or poorly co-ordinated slowdowns could backfire if ‌less cautious actors continue advancing, potentially reducing overall safety.

It said that a meaningful pause would require agreement among “multiple well-resourced labs” operating at the technological frontier, as well as rules on what conditions would trigger or lift such a pause and who would oversee it.

“A unilateral pause by one lab, by contrast, is achievable immediately but accomplishes much less: it would change who the front-runner is but it would not create the wider deliberative process that is currently missing,” the startup said.

Its research arm, Anthropic Institute, plans to study systems needed to ​support a slowdown and in the coming months will convene policy-makers, researchers, civil society groups and rival AI firms to discuss managing risks such as recursive self-improvement.

OpenAI, xAI, ​Alphabet, Meta Platforms and French firm Mistral did not ⁠immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would join the call.

New Zealand is making a pitch for its infrastructure businesses to win lucrative contracts before the Brisbane Olympics, as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon prepares to sit down with Anthony Albanese.

Mr Albanese and his New Zealand counterpart will hold the annual leaders’ meeting in Noosa, Queensland, on Saturday.

Mr Luxon arrived in Australia on Friday for a two-day visit.

The prime minister and his wife Jodie Haydon hosted a reception for Mr Luxon and Amanda Luxon on Friday evening, with business leaders from the two nations in attendance.

Mr Luxon earlier met with members of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Committee where he spruiked his nation’s businesses for massive construction projects.

He said his government would make the most of the event to promote New Zealand as a tourist destination, with the eyes of the world on the region.

The two leaders will also discuss how to deepen defence and security co-operation, particularly in the Pacific.

Senior ministers from Mr Luxon’s government have in recent weeks called on Australian business owners unhappy with the federal government’s changes to the capital gains tax to move across the Tasman.

New Zealand’s leader remains strongly opposed to taxing capital gains, saying it will harm businesses.

It is Mr Luxon’s third official visit to Australia, after he last travelled to Canberra in August 2024 for talks with Mr Albanese.

The last annual leaders’ meeting was held in Queenstown in August 2025.

Australia has no “closer friend, neighbour and ally than New Zealand”, Mr Albanese said.

“Our alliance is more important than ever in the face of global uncertainty,” he said.

“As new challenges emerge, Australia and New Zealand will continue to work together to safeguard the economic prosperity and national security of both countries and the Pacific region.”

The US economy has posted a third straight month of strong job gains in May, confirming the labour market was gaining traction after stumbling ‌last year and giving the Federal Reserve more room to keep interest rates unchanged amid rising inflation due to the war in the Middle East.

The closely watched employment report from the US Labor Department on Friday painted an upbeat ‌picture of the jobs market. 

The economy added 93,000 more jobs in March and April than previously estimated and the unemployment rate held at 4.3 per cent for a third consecutive month. 

While financial markets boosted the chances of an interest rate ‌hike in December, economists said the bar remains high for monetary policy tightening. 

Economists say fiscal stimulus, in the form of tax and import tariff refunds, has cushioned the effect of the US-backed war with Iran, which has stoked inflation through a surge in oil prices. 

Corporate profits have increased since the second quarter of 2025, allowing businesses to refrain from large-scale lay-offs. 

Economists, however, warned of risks to the labour market if the war persists.

“This report is likely to confirm to the Fed that the labour market is in a stable place, allowing inflation to be the only focus and driver of Fed policy heading into the June meeting,” said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, a senior ‌economist at FHN Financial.

Non-farm payrolls increased ‌by 172,000 jobs last month ⁠after rising by an upwardly revised 179,000 in April, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said. 

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls would ​increase by 85,000 jobs after a previously reported rise of 115,000 in April.

Estimates for job growth ranged from 50,000 to 125,000. 

The payrolls count for March was revised up by 29,000 jobs to 214,000. 

Economists estimated the economy needs to create between zero and 50,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. 

The so-called break-even rate has dropped because of an immigration crackdown that has reduced the labour force, limiting the rise in the unemployment rate.

The labour market had been hampered by uncertainty over the implementation last year of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which made businesses cautious about boosting hiring. 

Although businesses are hiring, much of the improvement in job growth is ⁠likely due to historically low lay-offs.

The US Supreme Court in February struck down ‌the tariffs, and some businesses ​have filed for refunds. 

Large income tax refunds have allowed consumers to keep spending, although upper-income households are doing most of the heavy lifting.

The run of strong employment gains suggests the labour market could be breaking out ​of its “slow-hire, slow-fire” equilibrium.

The leisure and hospitality sector led the broad increase in employment last month, with 70,000 jobs added, well above the average monthly gain of 14,000 over the past 12 months.

Payrolls at restaurants and bars rose by ​48,000 ​jobs. 

These establishments could be hiring in preparation for the FIFA World Cup football tournament, which ​is being partly hosted by the US.

The healthcare sector added ‌35,000 jobs, most of them in ambulatory services. 

There were also increases in payrolls in the social assistance, mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction industries. 

But employment tied to financial activities dropped by 22,000 jobs and is down by 107,000 since a recent peak in May 2025. 

There were employment losses for insurance carriers and related activities as well as commercial banking.

“There is no compelling reason to expect the Fed to cut rates this year,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide.

“At this point it is premature to anticipate a rate increase. For the ​Fed to consider a rate hike, the jump in energy ⁠prices would need to push up prices of other goods and services away from the immediate direct impact and dislodge the so-far well-contained bond market ​inflation expectations.”

Australia is being urged to use its prominent international climate diplomacy role to show leadership on ocean health and fill a void left by the United States.

Ahead of mid-year climate talks in Germany, oceans expert Terry Garcia said the global community could not count on the US as a reliable partner and leader on ocean and climate policy in the next two-and-a-half years.

“If progress is to be made, others will have to shoulder the burden,” the former senior bureaucrat with the top US climate and weather agency said while delivering the Talbot Oration at the Australian Museum.

“In that regard, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region have the credibility, institutions and scientific capacity this moment urgently requires,” he said on Thursday in Sydney.

The Trump administration has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement and stripped funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where Mr Garcia previously served as deputy administrator.

Deep-sea mining – involving mineral extraction from the ocean floor, where little is known about the environmental consequences – has also been fast-tracked by the US, including in international waters.

“These actions could have far-reaching consequences, measured in harm to reefs, coastlines, fisheries, and the well-being of people around the world,” Mr Garcia said.

Australia was “perfectly positioned” to assert international leadership as president of negotiations at the upcoming United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) summit, he said, to be hosted by Turkey with pre-meetings in Pacific island countries.

Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will attend the annual mid-year meetings in Bonn, Germany, which typically lay the scientific and technical groundwork for the main event later in the year.

His Turkish counterpart, COP31 president Murat Kurum, will also lead discussions and sound out national priorities.

Clean energy and electrification have emerged as priorities for Mr Bowen and Mr Kurum, as the biggest oil shock in history sparks renewed focus on energy security.

Electric vehicle uptake in Australia has exploded since the Middle East conflict began, with hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EVs making up more than 46 per cent of all new cars sold in May.

International climate negotiations are also heating up as the World Meteorological Organisation ascribes an 80 per cent chance of an El Nino forming in months, of at least moderate strength.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said El Nino conditions would “pour fuel on the fire of a warming world”.

In a wide-ranging speech on the perils facing marine landscapes, Mr Garcia said ocean degradation and climate change were “inextricably intertwined”.

“Sea-surface temperatures have hit record highs,” he said. 

“And right now, we are living through the most widespread coral bleaching event ever recorded.

“My old agency, NOAA, has had to add three new alert levels to its coral bleaching scale – the equivalent of adding category six and seven to the hurricane scale, because the existing categories couldn’t capture what we were seeing.”

The family of a former governor-general who resigned over his handling of child sexual abuse in the Anglican church has reflected on the shadow cast over his final years.

Peter Hollingworth served as the Archbishop of Brisbane for more than a decade before being appointed governor-general in 2001.

He died after a fall on May 19, aged 91, and was farewelled at a requiem eucharist at Christ Church, in Melbourne’s South Yarra, on Friday.

Friends, former colleagues and family paid tribute to Dr Hollingworth’s years of service as a cleric and social welfare advocate and organiser.

The funeral was attended by Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Victorian Governor Margaret Gardner and former prime minister John Howard.

Delivering a eulogy on behalf of the family, Deborah Hollingworth reflected on the “long shadow” overhanging her father’s final years.

Appointed governor-general by Mr Howard in 2001, Dr Hollingworth used his position to advocate for Indigenous rights and disadvantaged people.

But his tenure was short-lived, resigning less than two years into the role amid scrutiny of his handling of child sexual abuse complaints within the Anglican church.

“He became the public face and lightning rod for the institutional failures to prevent and address child sexual abuse,” Ms Hollingworth said.

“He bore that burden heavily, as did we.”

The fallout tarnished not just his public standing but that of the church he represented, Ms Hollingworth said.

“He knew that in the public imagination he had come to stand among the bad men, and that knowledge grieved him profoundly,” she said.

“And yet he understood how it had happened and why.

“He also knew that there was a dark shadow over the church that he had served and been committed to.”

Born in Adelaide in 1935, Dr Hollingworth was later raised in Melbourne, studying theology at the University of Melbourne.

He studied under the late Anglican priest Gerard Kennedy Tucker, who inspired his turn towards frontline social work.

He was ordained as a priest of the Anglican Church of Australia in 1960, before going on to join the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

Founded by his university mentor, Dr Hollingworth served the welfare organisation for 25 years, including as executive director.

The father-of-three was consecrated Bishop of the Inner City in Melbourne in 1985 before being elected Archbishop of Brisbane four years later.

It was there that Dr Hollingworth failed to act on knowledge of abuse, a 2003 board of inquiry into the handling of complaints of sexual abuse in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane found.

He allowed two priests, Donald Shearman and John Elliot, to remain in the church despite knowing they had sexually assaulted children.

A church inquiry in 2023 found he had committed misconduct by allowing the pedophiles to remain in the church but said he remained fit for ministry.

Dr Hollingworth accepted the investigation’s findings, saying he “made mistakes and I cannot undo them” but had committed no crimes.

While Dr Hollingworth continued his community work after leaving office, he was forever changed by the sustained public scrutiny, Ms Hollingworth said.

“When he returned to Melbourne, he was like a battle-wounded, shell-shocked soldier, not at all the same man that left in 1990,” she said.

“The successive public inquiries, each covering the same four matters that he was involved in, that had transpired in Brisbane, took their toll.

“In his later years, he lived in the long shadow cast by those successive inquiries and by the enduring pain that he knew surrounded them.”

He announced in 2023 he would no longer practise as an Anglican priest to “end distress” for survivors.

Following a series of strokes that same year, Dr Hollingworth resided in an aged care home in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Malvern.

Dr Hollingworth wrote a number of leading texts on poverty and social welfare and was named Australian of the Year in 1991.

He was expected to be farewelled at a private cremation following the ceremony on Friday.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

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Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)

Disabled Australians could be left without the ability to regularly work or access medical appointments as a result of sweeping funding cuts, a senate committee has heard.

Revealed in May, social participation budgets in the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be slashed by 50 per cent to curb the $50-billion-a-year scheme’s growth. 

The funding can be used for things like hobbies, grocery shopping, and getting to and being assisted with work. 

Those with vision impairments and Down syndrome are likely to be most affected by the cuts, government modelling shows.

Greens disability spokesperson Jordon Steele-John said having community services “all mixed up together in the same pot” would stop many people, particularly those with Down syndrome, from being able to work or access meaningful group activities. 

“How are you proposing then to reinforce the employment funding if it’s just an across the board cut?” he said. 

Health Department officials said the government did not intend to cut funding for work specifically, but did not confirm how they would stop that from happening. 

“The intended cuts to social and community participation clearly will have an effect … the category will still remain, it will just have less funding,” health deputy secretary Mary Wood told a senate estimates hearing. 

Advocacy groups such as Down Syndrome Australia, which has echoed Senator Steele-John’s concerns, will only be consulted after the bill has passed.

Independent senator David Pocock said this form of consultation seemed pointless. 

“The government has already baked this into the (federal) budget. If the 50 per cent cut is happening, what good is consultation after the fact?” Senator Pocock said. 

“Many people with Down syndrome rely on their social and community participation budgets to work – something that they very much cherish.”

If the bill passes, the health minister will be able to decide ratios of social and wellbeing support for people of different disability categories, rather than it being decided through assessment. 

Meanwhile, the amount of taxpayer money spent dealing with disability complaints has surged.  

The National Disability Insurance Agency has spent $170 million in the past three years fighting NDIS participants appealing decisions about their packages.

About $66 million has been spent in the current financial year, up from $60 million in 2024/25 and $44 million the year before that. 

The agency resolved 1979 applications in the last quarter alone, after receiving almost 7000 in the financial year to March. 

Three days of hearings into the NDIS bill will take place from Tuesday.

The corporate watchdog has launched a formal investigation into a top-tier consultancy firm following allegations it misused confidential information.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission told a budget estimates inquiry it had begun the investigation into KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, expanding a preliminary probe.

The firm’s Australian head Andrew Yates resigned in May following the treatment of and the mishandling of allegations by a whistleblower, after an internal investigation into the claims of misconduct was found to have fallen short of the firm’s expectations.

ASIC’s chair Sarah Court said the larger investigation began earlier in June.

“We have deep concerns about what has been revealed in the press, and we are trying to get to the bottom of the evidence as to those various incidents,” she told the inquiry on Friday.

“This is an ever-moving feast at the moment as more information comes our way, so I don’t know that that will be the end of it.”

Ms Court said ASIC had provided KPMG with multiple notices about the formal investigation.

“ASIC has been engaging proactively with KPMG and that level of engagement has intensified,” she said.

Three of KPMG’s four registered company auditors are within the scope of the probe, Ms Court said.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said the federal government was reviewing the contracts it had with the consultancy firm.

“There’s also a briefing coming up from the department, from Treasury to me, in relation to whistleblower activity in light of this,” he told ABC Radio.

“One of the issues that we’re going to need to examine is the extent to which whistleblower protections in relation to corporations apply to partnerships.

“It’s not a straightforward area, and that’s one of the issues that we’ll look at as part of the whistleblower inquiry.”

Mr Mulino said the powers of ASIC under corporations laws and how they interacted with partnerships also needed to be examined.

“There was already a process underway, but the allegations against KPMG have just heightened the urgency of this,” he said.

Ms Court said ASIC did not have the information to hand about why Mr Yates resigned as Australian chief executive.

Audit head Julian McPherson also resigned from KPMG following the allegations.

A probiotic strain developed by an Australian biotechnology group over a number of years has produced good results in early trials, its owner says.

Biome Australia has licensed a number of probiotic strains exclusively for use in its pills, which are sold under its name in pharmacies across the country.

But the listed biotechnology company also owns the intellectual property rights to BMB 18, a proprietary strain of L. plantarum, which is a probiotic commonly used for weight loss and to improve gut and mouth health.

Initial Petri dish testing shows “one of the strongest results we’ve seen, certainly in mechanistic data around immune support on inflammation,” founder and managing director Blair Vega Norfolk told an investor briefing on Friday.

A 240-participant clinical trial evaluating BMB 18 began in May at La Trobe University in Melbourne and Harokopio University in Athens, to generate the first data in humans of the strain’s efficacy.

“We’ll be expecting that we’ll be able to show some really material p-values and results within the next 12 months on gut health and also mental health,” Mr Norfolk said.

The hope is that Biome Australia will be able to add BMB 18 as a “hero” to some of its existing probiotic strains that are selling well, further protecting its intellectual property and brand. 

“It will also create a very unique opportunity for us to do new product development into areas where we have no competition at all,” Mr Norfolk said.

The strain could also be licensed out to some of the world’s major probiotic manufacturers.

Biome Australia has a low-single-digit share of Australia’s $600 million probiotic market, with $12.4 million in sales in the first half.

Its brands are the leading probiotics in community pharmacies and No 2 in the Terry White Chemmart chain, the company says.

Last financial year, Biome Australia delivered its first net profit, of $214,656.

Pauline Hanson has been forced to confirm how One Nation’s housing policy would work after multiple party members misspoke or could not provide crucial details in separate interviews.

Under the party platform, foreign owners of homes in Australia would have two years to sell their property or have it repossessed by the government.

When asked if the measure also applied to permanent residents who were not citizens, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said they would also be forced to divest their properties.

“Become an Australian citizen and that’s going to deal with the issue, right? Become an Australian citizen,” he told Sky News on Thursday night.

Mr Joyce later conducted a second interview on Sky, in which he confirmed the party’s policy did not extend to permanent residents, after making several phone calls to verify the platform.

“On further investigation and discussions with One Nation, no, we are not going to be kicking permanent residents out of their house,” he said.

The interview prompted party leader Pauline Hanson to confirm the measures would not affect permanent residents.

“If you are a temporary visa holder or a foreign citizen residing overseas, One Nation will give you two years to sell their property to an Australian,” she wrote on social media on Friday.

“One Nation would remove the ability for international students, non-permanent residents, and non-Australian citizens from buying future property within Australia.”

But confusion over the policy continued when One Nation senator Sean Bell could not provide details on what would happen if homes were not sold within the two-year time frame and whether the government would still be able to repossess them.

“That is an excellent question, but what we’re saying, and it is perfectly reasonable to expect that homes in Australia go to Australian citizens,” he told radio 2GB Sydney.

The interview ended early after host Mark Levy said it was “turning into a train wreck” and the senator needed clarity on the policy.

“You can’t come on the radio and say ‘we’re going to give people two years to divest their property’ and then not answer the question,” Mr Levy said.

Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume said One Nation was at a loss to explain how its housing plan would work.

“I’m not entirely sure even One Nation knows their policy here, but if their policy is to kick people out of their homes, I think that that should set off alarm bells for millions of Australians, because that is a very new development,” she told Sky News.

“Even Barnaby Joyce said, ‘well, this policy is formative’. 

“What does that mean? It’s a slogan. It’s not a policy. It’s got no substance behind it.”

Australians lost almost a quarter of a billion dollars in the first three months of 2026, with online cons driving the largest losses.

Scammers cheated Aussies out of $248.3 million in the period, according to 60,657 reports received by Scamwatch and ReportCyber.

However, the number of scam reports and losses fell by roughly a sixth compared to the same three months in 2025, in a sign that efforts by governments, regulators, industry, and police are working.

“That said, we caution against drawing too much from one quarter of data as reports and losses typically move around somewhat,” the consumer watchdog, which oversees Scamwatch, said in a statement.

“We will continue to monitor closely to see whether this quarter’s data represents the beginning of a trend.”

Investment scams accounted for the highest reported losses to Scamwatch in the first quarter, amounting to $45.5 million.

Relationship scam losses rose to $7.5 million, while phishing scams remained one of the most commonly reported grifts, with more than 13,400 reported over the period.

Email remains the most common method scammers use to snare victims.

Australians lost $2.2 billion to scams in 2025, down from a peak of $3.1 billion in 2022.

Showing the scale of the problem, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s National Anti-Scam Centre disrupted thousands of scam operations over the quarter.

They took down almost 5,900 scam sites, including 1,960 fake online gambling – or scambling – websites.

”Online platforms give scammers the ability to reach large numbers of people quickly, cheaply and convincingly,”  commission deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.

”Disrupting scam websites is one of the ways we can make it harder for criminals to reach Australians online.” 

The Anti-Scam Centre also referred 511 advertisements, profiles and groups on Fecebook to platform-owner Meta for investigation.

Scammers are increasingly using polished and professional-looking content to appear legitimate.

”Consumers should be cautious if a website or advertisement creates urgency, promises high returns or asks for payment or personal information up-front,” Ms Lowe said.

People should always pause before sharing personal information and be wary of high-pressure situations.

“Say no, hang up, or delete suspicious messages,” the watchdog said.

“Contact the person or organisation directly using phone numbers or email addresses you find on their official website or app.”

People should contact their bank immediately if they think they’ve lost money or shared financial details.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET SCAMMED

* Contact IDCARE (www.idcare.org or call 1800 595 160) if you want support to recover – they can help you create a plan to mitigate the damage

* Report to Scamwatch (www.scamwatch.gov.au) to help protect others

* Report to police (www.cyber.gov.au)

* Change passwords and security details if you think they’ve been compromised

* Monitor your bank statements and credit reports for unusual activity

* Report the scam to the impersonated organisation and platform where the scam is happening

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636