The Guardian Australia
More than 13,000 seal pups die on remote Australian island amid bird flu outbreak
More than 13,000 seal pups have died on an Australian territory, as testing confirmed the spread of deadly H5N1 bird flu among penguins, seals and petrels on subantarctic islands. The mass mortality of southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island,...
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Pauline Hanson makes clear what a One Nation government would be like - it’s an ugly picture
For months, voters have been telling anyone who’ll listen that they want Pauline Hanson. Pollsters, journalists and the (current) political establishment have all heard how the major parties are letting down the country and One Nation is the...
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Birthkeeper hired by woman who died after freebirth tells inquest she was ‘not there to make a birth safer’
A birthkeeper hired by a woman who died after giving birth at home has told a coroner that she was “not there to make a birth safer”. Emily Lal gave evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into the death of 30-year-old Stacey Warnecke, who died on 29...
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Melbourne wellness influencer found short of breath and clammy after home birth hours before death
A Melbourne wellness influencer was found lying on the floor of her home in an altered state of consciousness beside a large blood clot in the hours before she died in hospital, an inquest has heard. Stacey Warnecke, 30, died in September from a...
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PhD student Maxim makes $18 an hour to research children’s cancer - it’s barely above Australia’s poverty line
Maxim Buckley studies how leukaemia cells communicate with each other. It’s critical research but as a PhD student he’s paid just $18.50 an hour, a rate that’s just above the poverty line. The 29-year-old is in his final months of research at...
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El Niño forms in Pacific as experts say it will likely turbocharge extreme weather
El Niño, Nature’s chaotic climate agent, has formed in a warmed-up Pacific Ocean and is expected to grow to historic strength, meteorologists announced on Thursday. Experts said the El Niño, a natural warming cycle, should further heat a globe already...
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Tony Abbott backs One Nation preference deal and says Liberals can’t just be a ‘little less woke than Labor’
The new Liberal president, Tony Abbott, has backed preference deals with One Nation as he declared the party wouldn’t win the next election by being “slaves to focus groups” and just a “little less woke than Labor”. The opposition leader, Angus...
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Households outshine business in Australia’s rooftop solar revolution, report finds
Australia’s revolution in rooftop solar has left behind commercial and industrial buildings where installations have lagged far behind homes, according to new analysis. Australia leads the world in residential solar on per capita terms, with 22GW...
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One Nation leader Pauline Hanson tells rally Ben Roberts-Smith is a person ‘I respect and I admire’
The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, told a rally in support of Ben Roberts-Smith that the former soldier accused of war crimes is a person “I respect and I admire”, before its organiser called for “an army of civilians” to support him. About 100...
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Penny Wong says she believes Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted and abused Australian women after Gaza flotilla
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she believes the Australian women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Israeli soldiers after being detained as part of a humanitarian flotilla attempting to bring aid to...
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Fired 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley says CBS told him to inject ‘falsehoods’ into reporting
The longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, who was fired by CBS News on Tuesday after clashing with the network’s new management, issued a public statement accusing the network’s new executives of silencing employees and claiming they...
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Not a paw swimmer: dog rescued from island off Australian coast after being swept into ocean
On Monday, radio operators in Batemans Bay along the New South Wales south coast got a call they hadn’t had before: a dog had been swept off the rocks and was in the ocean in distress. Rod Ingamells, the unit commander of the local Marine Rescue NSW...
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Australia’s 178 billionaires are $25.7bn richer than last year as 3.7 million live in poverty
The wealth of Australia’s billionaires increased by $25.67bn in the past year, equivalent to almost $50,000 a minute, according to new Oxfam Australia analysis of the 2026 Australian Financial Review Rich List. The antipoverty organisation said the...
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Government declines to protect Indigenous sacred site to be bulldozed for Brisbane Olympic stadium
The federal government has decided against an 11th-hour intervention to halt construction of an Olympic stadium and aquatic centre in the heart of Brisbane, in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site. The environment...
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‘True patriot’: White House pays bizarre tribute to Harambe 10 years after gorilla’s death
The White House has posted on social media a tribute to mark Thursday’s 10th anniversary of the death of a figure it called “a true patriot”. The hero was not a human, however; it concerned the infamous case of the 400lb western lowland gorilla that...
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Jillian Segal hired former Scott Morrison adviser on $200,000 contract without public tender process
The antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, hired Scott Morrison’s former principal adviser on a $200,000 contract without a public tender process, with department officials saying his skills could not be provided by any other business. Society Advisory...
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Renters could save $20bn on bills in a decade from rooftop solar and appliance upgrades - if landlords act
Renters make up nearly a third of Australian households, yet many are missing out on energy upgrades - such as insulation, appliances and rooftop solar - that could slash their power bills and improve home comfort. The problem, according to the...
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World’s biggest miner BHP backtracks on climate action with key projects put on ice, leaked documents reveal
The world’s biggest miner has halted or delayed projects to cut vast amounts of emissions and has quietly war-gamed options to push major climate investments in its Western Australian iron ore operations into the next two decades, internal documents...
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No refunds for 15,000 Australian ticket holders after Candace Owens’ tour cancelled
None of the 15,000 ticket holders for conservative influencer Candace Owens’ cancelled Australian tour are expected to get their money back from the promoter, after it spent all its money then collapsed. Owens herself says she is hundreds of thousands...
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US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say
A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts. There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare...
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Labor denies CGT reform will ‘kill startups’ as tech giant Canva warns of stifling innovation
The founder of Australian startup success story Canva says the capital gains tax discount is critical to entrepreneurs launching new companies, heaping more pressure on the Labor government to reconsider its budget changes which critics warn could...
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Jayson Gillham: MSO executive suggested cancelling pianist’s concert before seeing Gaza comments, court hears
A Melbourne Symphony Orchestra executive suggested cancelling a concert by Jayson Gillham before he had read the comments the classical pianist made about Israel killing journalists in Gaza, a court has heard. Gillham is suing the MSO over a cancelled...
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Police running out of room to store illegal cigarettes they’ve seized amid Australia’s booming illicit trade
Police are struggling to store a growing wave of illegal cigarettes and vapes seized from criminals, with secure facilities at capacity and the high cost of destroying illicit products becoming prohibitive. The Australian federal police (AFP) has been...
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Liberal party ‘corroded by hate’, MP says amid concerns of ‘dog whistling’ on immigration
Liberal MPs have expressed concern about Angus Taylor’s immigration policy, with one claiming the party’s soul is being “corroded by hate”. Several Liberal MPs have said they now believe Pauline Hanson’s party is in control of the Liberal...
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Brazil’s Atlantic forest records lowest deforestation in 40 years
Brazil’s Atlantic forest, the country’s most threatened biome, last year recorded its lowest level of deforestation since monitoring began 40 years ago, a new report shows. The forest is Brazil’s most populous biome, and home to 80% of the population...
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Paramedic felt ‘shock and disbelief’ when Clare Nowland shot by NSW police Taser, inquest hears
A paramedic has relived her disbelief while watching a police officer fatally taser a 95-year-old woman with dementia. Then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his weapon at Clare Nowland after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing...
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Irish TV to air Father Ted instead of Eurovision final in protest against Israel’s inclusion
It is considered one of the funniest episodes of a beloved sitcom, but the Father Ted storyline about Eurovision has been dragged into the row over Israel’s participation in this week’s song contest. Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, which is...
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Betting account on 18th birthday, dead at 22: inquest probes death of Melbourne man who gambled $895,000
A Melbourne man gambled $895,733 through online betting platforms in the four years between his 18th birthday and the day he took his own life, an inquest has heard. Victorian coroner Paul Lawrie’s inquest into the circumstances of Kyle Hudson’s death...
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Pardoned January 6 rioter sentenced to seven years for Virginia burglary
A convicted participant in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack who was pardoned at the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency has been ordered to serve seven years in prison after a jury found him guilty of committing a burglary in Virginia in May...
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Almost $4bn more for Victoria’s contentious Suburban Rail Loop to be included in federal budget
The federal budget will include another $3.8bn for the Suburban Rail Loop, Melbourne’s controversial and costly 90km public transport project. Prime minister Anthony Albanese will announce the additional funding alongside the Victorian premier,...
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Snow forecast for three states as cold weather front descends on Australia’s south-east
A cold front and chasing highpressure system should cause the mercury to plunge across most of southern Australia in coming days. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a first taste of wintry conditions across much of the country, with the first...
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RBA interest rates: Michele Bullock says Australians poorer with ‘no way out’ as she warns of more rate hikes
The Reserve Bank governor has said surging oil prices in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran have made Australians poorer with “no way out”, after handing down an interest rate rise and warning more hikes could be needed. A week out from the federal...
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Wikipedia founder brands Australia’s social media ban an ‘unmitigated disaster’ and ‘embarrassment’
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has branded the Australian social media ban an “unmitigated disaster” and an “embarrassment” that is teaching kids to accept surveillance from tech companies when they go online. The online encyclopaedia that anyone...
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Barnaby Joyce blames campaign ‘pressure’ after One Nation Farrer candidate contradicts party on immigration
Barnaby Joyce has blamed “the pressure of a campaign” for One Nation’s Farrer candidate contradicting party policy on immigration and appearing to endorse Labor’s current intake. The One Nation MP also claimed voters won’t worry about Gina Rinehart’s...
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Gucci, Coldplay and wooden bowls: what billionaire’s secretary allegedly bought in $1.6m credit card fraud spree
The private secretary of billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson allegedly used multiple credit cards owned by her employer to make luxury purchases including goods from Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Gucci and a box at a Coldplay concert, and arranged a...
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Pauline Hanson boasts about ‘sexy’ new private plane gifted by Gina Rinehart and $2m in donations
Gina Rinehart has gifted Pauline Hanson a “sexy” new private plane, worth more than $1.5m, to use in the lead-up to the next federal election, as a group of her close associates donate another $2m to the reascendant One Nation party. The One Nation...
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Press dinner shooting conspiracy theories spread in era of fractured politics
After an armed man attempted to breach the ballroom where Donald Trump was set to speak to White House journalists on Saturday, conspiracies immediately spread about whether the event was staged. The rhetoric has become a common refrain from both...
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Men accused of raping cellmates mistakenly allowed to stay in shared cells by Queensland prison staff
Men charged with alleged prison rapes were allowed to stay in shared cells - against strict protocols - by Queensland corrections staff who mistakenly believed their cases were “closed” and that they posed no risk, a report by the state’s ombudsman has...
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‘The birds are a global citizen’: Indigenous groups in Australia and Alaska team up to track a feathered adventurer’s epic journey
Short-tailed shearwaters used to blacken the skies on the southwest coast of Australia, so abundant were they in their coastal homes each Djilba season - the time in the calendar of the Noongar peoples between August and September, when days shift from...
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David Malouf, Australian author of Remembering Babylon and Ransom, dies aged 92
David Malouf, the acclaimed Australian author of books including Ransom, An Imaginary Life and the Booker prizenominated Remembering Babylon, has died aged 92. Malouf died on Wednesday, his publisher, Penguin Random House Australia, said in a...
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At least 160,000 to be cut from NDIS amid concerns vulnerable people will be left without care
At least 160,000 people are expected to be removed from the national disability insurance scheme by 2030, as the Albanese government looks to claw back savings by changing who can access the scheme. The health minister, Mark Butler, unveiled a massive...
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Labor under internal pressure on gas tax as influencer says government ‘stopped working for the punters’
The Albanese government is facing internal pressure to raise taxes on gas companies as a prominent social media influencer warns Labor not to underestimate the scale of public outrage about the existing regime. Labor’s environment action network...
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Adelaide University considers dropping Santos name from building
The newly formed Adelaide University is considering removing gas company Santos’s name from one of its buildings. On Saturday, students and conservationists rallied outside the Santos Petroleum Engineering building, calling on the university to dump...
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Learner driver charged over Supanova expo death at Melbourne showgrounds
A learner driver has been charged with killing a pedestrian after a car ploughed into a group outside a popular comic convention. A 20-year-old man died and another man the same age was seriously injured when a Toyota sedan mounted the kerb outside...
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NSW’s highest court strikes down anti-protest law introduced in wake of Bondi beach terror attack
New South Wales’ highest court has struck down an anti-protest law brought in after the Bondi beach terror attack which gave police the power to restrict marches, including at the anti-Herzog rally earlier this year. The court of appeal handed down...
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Gina Rinehart’s son says he wants to be a ‘united family’ in olive branch to mother after court ruling
Gina Rinehart’s son has said he wants to reunite his family after a landmark court case left a longrunning feud over ownership of mines and companies unresolved. The Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday found Rinehart’s children were at one...
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‘I don’t just ditch my mates’: new Victorian Labor minister defends John Setka ties amid criticism
Luba Grigorovitch, one of four Victorian Labor MPs promoted to cabinet, says she has “no regrets” about her past friendship with disgraced construction union leader John Setka, despite the opposition labelling her appointment “appalling”. The...
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Tourists to Australia would have social media accounts vetted under Trumpian Coalition plan
A Coalition government would end Australia’s nondiscriminatory immigration program and introduce Trumpstyle social media vetting for visa applicants, as Angus Taylor accuses Labor of allowing migrants of “subversive intent” into the country. As the...
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Jackie O told Kiis FM bosses she was subjected to ‘degrading’ comments from Kyle Sandilands, court documents show
Jackie “O” Henderson sent a text message to the head of the KiiS FM Network five months before she walked off air, saying listeners were complaining that she was in an “abusive relationship” with former co-host Kyle Sandilands. Court documents show...
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Trump tells Artemis II crew he saved Nasa despite trying to slash agency’s budget
The crew of Artemis II phoned home from the moon on Monday night after their record-breaking day, to find Donald Trump musing about how he had saved the US space agency Nasa from closing down and telling the astronauts how much they deserved the honor...
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Diesel remains volatile as prices rise again despite Labor’s fuel tax relief
Diesel users in Australia are not enjoying the same relief as unleaded customers, with one in 30 service stations still entirely out of diesel and prices rising again after an initial slump last week. But while the energy minister, Chris Bowen, urged...
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Moira Deeming to secure top spot on Victorian Liberal ticket
Moira Deeming will secure a top spot on the Victorian Liberal party’s upper house ticket unopposed - less than a week after members voted to dump her - after the withdrawal of candidates from a re-run ballot. Deeming was on Sunday ousted from the...
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‘Harrowing’: Cyclone Narelle leaves graveyard of turtles, dolphins and seabirds in Western Australia
As the flooding from Tropical Cyclone Narelle’s violent visit to Exmouth subsided and the winds dropped, Brinkley Davies headed to Graveyards beach. The beach, at least according to some Exmouth locals, got its name because of the tendency for turtles...
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‘Our little savior’: partly blind New Mexico dog hailed for warding off bear
A half-blind, 12-year-old Mexico dog is being called “bear slayer” after she fended off an ursine intruder at her family’s home, protecting dozens of chickens and other animals but only narrowly surviving the violent encounter. As told by her...
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An isolated property, a morning standoff and an armed fugitive: Dezi Freeman’s final hours
The final hours and minutes of Dezi Freeman’s life will be analysed in painstaking, forensic detail. But for the moment, there are few independently known facts, after months of rumour and wild speculation. How did Freeman come to be holed up on an...
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One Nation renews defection offer to ‘courageous’ Moira Deeming after Victorian Liberal MP dumped from election ticket
Moira Deeming has lost her spot on the ballot for the Victorian Liberal party at the November state election, after a successful challenge by a moderatebacked candidate. Liberal members gathered at party headquarters in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday for...
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Tropical Cyclone Narelle forecast to pummel remote WA towns with wind gusts of up to 275km/h
Tropical Cyclone Narelle - a severe storm that has pummelled communities across thousands of kilometres in Australia’s north - was again intensifying on Thursday with several remote towns directly in its destructive path. The cyclone, which was a...
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Tropical Cyclone Narelle intensifies off WA as it continues rare path across Australia
Tropical Cyclone Narelle was again intensifying into a severe storm off Western Australia’s Kimberley coast on Wednesday with communities in the state’s world heritage-listed Shark Bay preparing for a potential direct hit on Friday night. Narelle had...
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US quadruple amputee cornhole champion arrested on suspicion of murder
A Maryland man who made history as the first quadruple amputee to compete in the professional televised American Cornhole League has been arrested on suspicion of shooting and killing a passenger in his car during an argument. Dayton Webber - who...
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Ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle to intensify with Perth a possible target as storm makes rare crossing across continent
Communities in Australia’s far north were again on flood alert as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle continued its destructive westward journey on Monday, with forecasts suggesting the system could re-intensify and potentially threaten the Perth region this...
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Saturated NT braces for Tropical Cyclone Narelle to dump another 300mm of rain
The air was dry for the first time in months on Saturday, a perverse trick as moisture is drawn into another storm system bearing down on the Northern Territory. Tropical Cyclone Narrelle is the seventh high-risk weather event to hit Australia’s north...
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‘Eerily silent’: Cape York residents batten down the hatches ahead of Tropical Cyclone Narelle’s arrival
In some ways, it seemed a pleasant, wet season morning in the remote Aboriginal community of Coen in tropical far north Queensland on Thursday - and Sara Watkins was preparing for a sausage sizzle. “It’s a day that you’d spend going fishing,” she...
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Australia’s high court orders ankle bracelets be removed and curfews end for 43 former immigration detainees
Dozens of former immigration detainees who have already served prison sentences will have ankle bracelets removed and curfews scrapped, with the high court again striking down laws targeting the group. On Wednesday, the Albanese government’s...
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Labor appears set to reform capital gains tax discount after parliamentary inquiry findings
Labor has given one of its strongest signals yet the capital gains tax discount will be reworked in the May budget, with a parliamentary inquiry finding the Howard-era settings are helping fuel intergenerational inequality in Australia’s housing...
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Dozens of petrol stations around Australia run out of fuel as panic-buying continues
Dozens of service stations across Australia have run out of petrol as distributors struggle to keep up with customers panicbuying as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt prices. The NRMA has warned regulators “missed” the chance to...
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‘War leader’ Trump fixates on trivial matters as Iran death toll mounts
More than two weeks into the USIsrael war on Iran, and the conflict appears at risk of spiraling out of control. Back home, Donald Trump’s behavior also appears chaotic. A foreign conflict typically brings somber reflection from leaders: in Trump’s...
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SA Liberals dump candidate who said homosexuality ‘opens up demonic realms’ after initially standing by him
A Liberal candidate in South Australia’s upcoming state election has been dumped after his “shocking and extreme” views on abortion, same-sex marriage, gender transitioning and feminism were aired by his Labor rival. The leader of the SA Liberals,...
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Football squad member changes mind on asylum as Iran accuses Australia of holding players ‘hostage’
One of the Iranian football squad members who had sought asylum has changed her mind, home affairs minister Tony Burke has confirmed. The turnaround comes as Iran’s foreign affairs ministry accused the Australian government of holding the players...
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Iran women’s football team leave on bus after landing in Sydney as emotional supporters watch on
The Iranian women’s football team have been whisked away on a bus at Sydney airport after dozens of supporters gathered at an airport gate to see them amid continued speculation about when or if they would be heading back to their home country. The...
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Australia would be signed up to Iran war ‘by deception and stealth’ if military support sent, Shoebridge says
The Greens say sending military support to Gulf countries would only serve Donald Trump’s interests in the growing Iran war, as international law experts warn assistance would mean Australia was legally part of the conflict. Cabinet’s national...
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Matildas score late in see-sawing draw with South Korea as top spot slips away at Women’s Asian Cup
A stoppage-time equaliser to Alanna Kennedy has given Australia a messy 3-3 draw against South Korea that means the Matildas have finished second in their Asian Cup group. An early strike by Mun Eun-ju and two quick second-half goals gave Korea a 3-2...
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Penny Wong refuses to say if any Australian crew onboard US submarine that sank Iranian warship
The Australian government has refused to disclose whether Australian sailors or officers were onboard the US attack submarine which torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people. More than 50 Australian sailors...
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Plibersek accuses Mafs of platforming ‘coercive control’ after contestant wanted a woman ‘obedient’ like a dog
The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has accused Australia’s biggest media company, Nine Entertainment, of “normalising” coercive control by airing an exchange in which a Married at First Sight contestant says he wants a woman to be obedient...
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