ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on June 5, 2026.
Friday essay: love, sex and intimacy in the time of AI
We are designed to smell each other – but the custom-made soulmates of AI are frictionless, and always available. What if we fall out of love with our own kind?
Why is Australia buying used submarines? A naval expert answers key AUKUS questions
Following news of Australia acquiring used Virginia-class submarines from the US, AUKUS has been in the headlines again, but how much of what you’ve heard is true?
Is Victoria really the ‘car theft capital’ of Australia? And if so, why?
At a time when vehicle theft claims are falling across most of Australia, Victoria is heading in the opposite direction.
Can you really drain your lymphatic system, and should you?
Social media is spruiking the health benefits of ‘lymphatic draining’. 2 lymphoedema experts explain what it is and whether it works.
AI at the World Cup: smarter tactics, healthy players, safer crowds – but new risks
This year’s World Cup will be the biggest ever – it also promises to be the most technologically advanced.
Australia now has access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos. It may improve cyber safety – but not for everyone
The AI era has fundamentally changed the risks associated with poor cybersecurity practices.
From exporting spyware to surveilling activists – how democracies became the new digital authoritarians
Democracies can either defend rights in the digital age, or drift into complicity as the architects of a new, global authoritarianism enabled by AI.
NZ’s new forestry rules promise consistency. Will they also increase environmental risk?
As an overhauled rulebook for commercial forestry comes into force, there are concerns it could weaken safeguards as climate risks intensify.
Three new Ebola vaccines are being developed. An infectious disease expert explains
There is no approved vaccine to curb the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. But new funding offers hope.
What the hit new show Off Campus gets right in its portrayal of sexual violence
For decades, TV has had a ‘rape problem’. But Off Campus proves stories about sexual violence don’t need to be graphic to be powerful.
Australian unis have dropped again in global rankings. Here’s why we can’t just shrug it off
According to international assessments, Australian unis are ‘struggling’. Closer to home, some academics are questioning whether a uni degree is even worth it.
People are using AI to communicate without disclosing it. Is this morally wrong?
Not all deceptions are equal.
Kerbside parking is great for drivers – but terrible for everyone else. Could we get rid of it?
Australia largely has enough off-street parking to do away with unsightly kerbside parking – and free up space for bikes, pedestrians and scooters.
Politicians have long misunderstood the ‘working class’. The rise of the far right shows how mistaken they have been
Class has always mattered, and now labour parties around the world are finding out why.
National insecurity: what happens when countries start to lose their sense of identity?
Borrowed from psychiatry, the term “ontological security” describes how nations understand themselves and their place in the world – and how it can break down.
Starting kindergarten soon? Summer is a perfect time to support your child’s early literacy learning
The best part of having fun with rhymes and words, noticing letters and reading together is that interactions build both early literacy skills and family connections.
Wildfires are reversing America’s progress on ozone pollution
The US had been reducing surface-level ozone, a harmful pollutant and the main component of smog, but that changed as wildfire activity picked up around 2015.
US mortgage rates are staying high – and the Fed can do very little about it
Investors’ inflation expectations, much more than the central bank, are among the factors that affect the cost of home loans.
Ocean conservation needs strong relationships, not just targets
There is no shortage of global objectives and targets driving ocean conservation. However, protecting oceans depends on the communities that steward them.
Zelenskyy’s honouring of wartime nationalists is straining Ukraine’s alliance with Poland
Two years after Canada’s parliament unwittingly gave a standing ovation to a veteran of a Nazi SS division, Ukraine’s own president is honouring figures from the same dark chapter of wartime nationalism.