Newly released UK cabinet papers from 2005 provide an insight into how the Blair government worked to flatter the Australian PM to influence his decision Tony Blair’s government discussed how to “influence” John Howard when it came to committing Australian troops to Iraq after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime, newly released files in the UK show. They also reveal that one of Howard’s own defence ministers told a Downing Street official that the Australian prime minister was not “keen” on sending troops to Afghanistan and privately advised the British leader should raise the issue with Howard “to get him focused on the need for Australia to contribute”. Continue reading...

Some things just aren’t resolvable ... * See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...

Conservationists and scientists criticise state for backtracking and say alternative non-lethal methods such as netting are more effective * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Queensland government has backtracked on plans to end the shooting of flying foxes from July 2026, continuing a practice wildlife advocates and scientists describe as “ineffective” and “inhumane”. Permits issued by the state’s environment department allow Queensland farmers to shoot flying foxes for the purposes of crop protection, up to an annual statewide quota set at 1,630 animals. That includes 130 grey-headed flying foxes, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, along with 700 black and 800 little red flying foxes. Continue reading...

One Nation senator travelled on mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 in October and is yet to declare it on parliamentary register Pauline Hanson and her chief of staff, James Ashby, flew to Florida on Gina Rinehart’s private jet in October, but the One Nation senator is yet to declare the sponsored travel or answer questions about whether she may be in breach of parliamentary rules. Guardian Australia can reveal the One Nation senator and her staffer travelled with Rinehart on the mining magnate’s Gulfstream 700 on 27 October, with publicly available flight tracking data showing that the aircraft travelled from Brisbane to Perth, before flying via Osaka to Palm Beach. Continue reading...

From the Sydney Harbour fireworks to rooftop parties and a pop-up cinema in Melbourne, there are plenty of events to bring in 2026 * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast From livestreamed fireworks to parties and family-friendly picnics, in Australia’s capital cities you can say goodbye to 2025 and celebrate what’s to come in 2026 however you like. Here are some major events happening around the country this New Year’s Eve. Continue reading...

When the hot winds hit Roebourne, as many as 16 people pile into Yindjibarndi elder Lyn Cheedy’s home – one of the few with air conditioning Few places are more exposed to extreme weather than Roebourne, a tiny cyclone-prone town on the Western Australian coast, where public housing residents endure 50C heat without air conditioning. Lyn Cheedy, a Yindjibarndi elder, takes her grandson to the pool most afternoons. Continue reading...

Drop in to gallery workshops to make plushie pals or shimmering sun catchers, design the first city on the moon, control a gigantic whale puppet or meet a mermaid these school holidays * Read more summer essentials * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Need a quick low-cost summer school holiday activity? There are heaps of free workshops, performances and exhibitions all around Australia, with many operating drop-in sessions – a busy parent’s dream. Continue reading...

After a year of taste tests, Nicholas Jordan has learned never to judge a food by its packet – including the cooking instructions Imagine going to a work Christmas party and being greeted not by your current workmates and bosses but by everyone you’ve ever worked with. Imagine the mix of dread, nostalgia and excitement that would bring on. That’s how I feel every time I walk into Coles Broadway. After trying 291 supermarket products for 14 taste tests this year (one more than last year’s haul) I feel as if I know all the characters in there and, despite only having relatively short interactions with many, I have strong opinions about all of them. Continue reading...

The old rivals have clashed in eight of the 27 Tests to finish inside two days – these are the tales behind the six matches played before the current series To put in context the surprise that greeted the two-day Boxing Day Test just gone, consider the rarity by arithmetic. The match in Melbourne was Test number 2,615, and was two-day Test number 27. You don’t need a calculator to see that’s roughly 1%. And yet we’ve had two such matches in the current Ashes series, plus another in Australia three years earlier. We’ve had half a dozen two-day Tests worldwide since 2021. What gives? Nine two-day Tests – fully one-third of the total – happened in the 1800s, when pitches could become swamps or shooting galleries. The next few mostly involved weak teams in their early years of development. Australia and England each dished one out to South Africa in the tri-series of 1912, and the South African team was little stronger when ripped up by Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O’Reilly in 1936. Australia also bashed up a new West Indies team in 1932 and New Zealand in 1946. Continue reading...

Australians shone on the global stage in 2025, while there was more myth-making and dynasties born closer to home Above it all, the thwack stands out. Over an extraordinary year of Australian sport: of world-beaters and champions of tomorrow; of myth-making performances at the summit of codes; of comebacks, and dynasties come and gone. When all that noise subsides, the sound of Gout Gout’s footfall stays with you. Watch him on television, or on one of his viral highlights, and his thin frame appears to glide across the track. But in person, the audible slap as his spikes meet the track is as loud as his arrival has been in Australian sport. Continue reading...

In Nowhere, The Crown actor interweaves personal experience and family history with commentary on western colonialism and the Israel-Gaza war * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email When British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla farewelled the hit series The Crown and his character, Dodi Fayed, he knew he was saying goodbye to a role with a depth and significance well beyond merely a love interest for Princess Diana. “Dodi is one of the first Arab characters I can think of in the history of [western] film that you get to know and love, not fear,” says Abdalla, seated in his London home two years after the series ended. “And so, when he dies, you mourn him.” Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

When a friend found out the painting she’d given me had made its way to a charity store, I wanted to dig a hole in the earth As the recipient of an unwanted gift, is it necessary to pretend you like it? This is what most of us are trained to do as children; for some it was our first experience of being instructed to lie. “Thank you,” I might have said to my grandmother, “for this frilly, itchy lace-trimmed dress identical to the one you gave my sister. I love it.” Continue reading...

Emma Johnston AO became first woman to lead the 172-year-old institution in February 2025 * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A transformative science researcher and the first woman to lead of one of Australia’s top universities has died. University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Emma Johnston died from complications with cancer, the university announced on Monday. Continue reading...

Coral Adventurer, being investigated for allegedly leaving behind passenger who died, ran aground with 124 people on board on Saturday * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An Australian cruise ship remains stuck on a reef off Papua New Guinea despite efforts to free it, with passengers set to be flown home early. The Coral Adventurer, which ran aground on Saturday morning, was already under investigation as a result of an unrelated incident in October, in which a passenger died after being allegedly left behind on an island. Continue reading...

Some of them are exactly the kind of members you want to meet, others … not so much Continue reading...

Warnings of extreme fire danger in SA regions, while Tropical Cyclone Hayley tracks towards WA * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Floods, fires and an approaching cyclone are threatening different parts of the Australia on Monday as severe weather continues into the final week of 2025. The flood situation across northern Queensland remained “dynamic”, according to Jonathan How, a forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, with a slow-moving monsoon trough and low-pressure system expected to deliver further falls of 50mm to 100mm across the north-west, and 50mm to 150mm along the north-east tropical coast. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Police are expanding aerial searches near where the abandoned car of 41-year-old Trisha Graf was found Police hold grave fears for a woman missing in the outback for 16 days and have renewed search efforts near where her car was found abandoned. Trisha Graf was last seen in the early hours of Friday 12 December in the Roxby Downs area, 510km north of Adelaide. Continue reading...

* Australian backs Ashes rival over video controversy * ‘I reached out to Ducky to see if he was going alright’ Travis Head has revealed he sent a message of support to his Ashes rival Ben Duckett after the England batter found himself on the end of a social media backlash. Unverified footage appearing to show an intoxicated Duckett in a tetchy late-night conversation with a fan during the team’s mid-series break in Noosa placed an unwanted spotlight on the opener. Continue reading...

Regent Theatre, Melbourne A few great performances can’t save a musical that fudges history and narrative stakes in service of sentiment and sparkle The real Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov was murdered alongside her father Tsar Nicholas II and the rest of her family during Russia’s Bolshevik revolution in 1918. Rumours of her survival persist – despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary – because the myth of the lost princess is a heady and seductive one, fodder for cheap historical fiction and, yes, animated kids movies. This 2017 Broadway musical – which premiered in Australia in Melbourne at the weekend, before a national tour – isn’t a Disney production but it apes Disney’s approach slavishly: heap with sentiment, dazzle with bling and try to say as little as possible. Based on the 1997 film, with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, this Anastasia (Georgina Hopson) naturally survives the completely fictional storming of her family’s palace (there was one but years after their deaths) to become a street sweeper in St Petersburg. She conveniently has amnesia and believes her name is Anya, a lazy plot device from the movie that the book writer, Terrence McNally, doesn’t fix. Continue reading...

* Australia coach Andrew McDonald guarantees veteran will play at SCG * 39-year-old’s future beyond series finale against England still in doubt Australia coach Andrew McDonald has guaranteed Usman Khawaja will play at the SCG, but is unsure if it will be the veteran’s last Test. After turning 39 earlier in December, Khawaja’s future will continue to be a talking point until he announces his retirement. Continue reading...

While the Melbourne curator had to face the media and say sorry, some of the players owe him an apology in return You know that something has gone wrong when the man in charge of the cricket pitch is giving a post-match press conference. Australian pitches are celebrities in their own right, each with a distinct perceived personality. Perth – gasoline, bounce. Sydney – intrigue, spin. Adelaide – graft, a late finale. Like any possessor of fame who has been around long enough, some trade on past glories that no longer apply, but what those ideas mean to the people repeating them is worth more than the truth itself. Aptly, these celebrities have agents, representatives, fluffers, heading to media appearances before each Test to prognosticate. Where the English grass gaffers are still called groundsmen, clomping around in gumboots yelling at interlopers to get off their giant lawn, the Australians are curators, artfully synthesising the elements of sun and rain and dew and morning mist into something tangible. Their pre-match appearances are oracular, reading the grass clippings like Babylonians did the heavens to say what might happen, to give the mood of the soil, to press one ear to the ground and tell you whether she be restless or still. Continue reading...

Just 70km from Melbourne yet only accessible by ferry, the island’s isolation is the source of its appeal and its biggest drawback * Read more summer essentials Approaching French Island on the ferry at dawn, if you’re lucky you might be greeted by the sight of hundreds of ibis in flight. From far away, they look like starlings in murmuration, the flock constantly swelling and shifting like the sea far beneath them. Just 70km from Melbourne in the middle of Western Port Bay, French Island is a remote haven hidden in plain sight. While nearby Phillip Island boasts popular holiday attractions, a motorcycle grand prix, a population of nearly 14,000 and a bridge to the mainland, French Island – twice its size – can only be accessed by an expensive, intermittent two-car barge from the small town of Corinella, or passenger ferry from Stony Point. It’s a refuge for native wildlife, and for a small human population – just 139 in the last census – who live entirely off-grid and prefer things to stay quiet. Continue reading...

My centre of gravity has shifted. The holidays are no longer something to construct but something to receive * Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life Just over a year ago, my mother died. It was a few months after my second baby was born and a month before Christmas. She was the last in the generation above me, and this fact reordered things in ways that are only just revealing themselves. This time last year, I was still unravelling – months of hospitals, grief and the unmanageable weight of suffering pressing into my postpartum body. The time will come when, with elation, Continue reading...

Athletics’ breakout star of 2025 is taking a gap year before university and says the break will help him focus more on the track Sprint phenomenon Gout Gout turned 18 on Monday, marking the formal end to the childhood of Australia’s fastest man. It’s a sentence as ridiculous as the Queenslander’s times, which have propelled him towards a medal assault at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and World Junior Championships. The past 12 months delivered Gout a first national title and a first senior world championships semi-final appearance. He was clocked under 10s in the 100m and under 20s in the 200m, even if the times were scrubbed from records due to excessive tailwinds. Continue reading...