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Stephen couldn’t find a free space so he parked his car on the grass… then came the $345 fine from council: ‘Greedy’
A Brisbane man has criticised Brisbane City Council after being fined $345 for parking his car on a grassed area near a full car park. Stephen Allthorpe, 63, said he had visited Shaw Park in Wooloowin as usual to walk his dog when he found no regular spaces available, prompting him to leave his SUV…
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Would you pay for an algorithm to pick your friends? New social apps spread across cities
A wave of paid social clubs, including Cliq, PLY and Agora, is expanding across UK cities, using algorithms rather than users themselves to decide who they meet at organised events. The trend is being driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as pubs and youth centres, a rise in remote working, and growing loneliness,…
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India’s crewed space program will fly this year, after missing 2022 and 2025 targets
India’s space agency ISRO has confirmed that the first uncrewed test flight of its long-delayed Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme will launch this year, after previously missed targets in 2022 and 2025. ISRO Chairman Dr V. Narayanan made the announcement during India’s third National Space Day, ending a year of silence on the programme’s timeline and…
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‘AI receptionist could not understand me after stroke’
A woman recovering from a stroke has said she felt “upset and frustrated” after an AI receptionist system at her GP surgery repeatedly failed to understand her speech, leading her to switch practices. Judith Butterfield, 71, from near Doncaster, said she tried five times to book an appointment through the AI service, called EMMA, but…
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TalkFuse morning briefing, 26 Aug 2026 04:38
Andy Burnham weighs insolvency-law changes to nationalise struggling utilities as a poll finds most Britons back barring asylum seekers from unsafe countries for women; Newsom’s mansion sale and Talarico-Paxton row stir 2028 talk; McKinsey questions AI’s returns; tributes pour in for Dolly Parton and Sir Billy Boston.
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Cruel Amazon worker is filmed knocking elderly man to the ground after argument over a parking space
An Amazon delivery driver has been filmed punching a 71-year-old man to the ground at a California petrol station following a dispute over a parking space. Surveillance footage released by police in Elk Grove shows Terrence Wheeler, 30, following the older man into the shop before striking him in the head with enough force to…
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Nine CEO confident new AI laws will deliver a ‘world of growth in publishing’ as network slashes costs
Nine Entertainment’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, has said he expects new Australian media bargaining laws to fuel a “world of growth in publishing”, even as the company pushes ahead with more than $160m in cost cuts over three years. The upbeat forecast comes as parliament passed revamped bargaining laws last week, paving the way for…
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India’s Ringg gets backing from Peak XV as it pushes voice AI past the phone call
Indian voice AI startup Ringg has raised $10 million from Peak XV Partners as an extension of its Series A funding round, betting that businesses will increasingly turn to automated voice agents to handle customer calls. The investment reflects growing demand in India, where more than 76% of consumers say they prefer speaking to businesses…
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Nirmeen, 56, hacked her husband to death, butchered his body and dumped the bits around Sydney – but she’s not a murderer
A 56-year-old woman, Nirmeen Noufl, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the killing of her husband Mamdouh Noufl, 62, and will not be tried for or convicted of his murder after prosecutors accepted the reduced plea. Noufl was accused of killing him during a physical altercation at their home in Greenacre, western Sydney, in May…
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Self-hosted email is in steep decline, Microsoft and Google are taking over
Self-hosted email is declining rapidly, with Microsoft and Google increasingly dominating how domains receive mail, according to research by Artem Berezin of business e-mail company Live Direct Marketing, published on the Internet Society blog. This matters because it concentrates control over global email delivery in the hands of two companies, meaning an outage, filtering change,…