Exclusive: Sources say a Sudanese national and another man chartered to former regional processing centre last week, joining one other person

A kiss to the forehead marked the culmination of years of work to get Shamikh Badra’s 79-year-old Palestinian mother, Fatma, to Australia.

A kiss to the forehead marked the culmination of years of work to get Shamikh Badra’s 79-year-old Palestinian mother, Fatma, to Australia. * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Shamikh Badra couldn’t hold the tears back when he got to hold his 79-year-old mother, Fatma, for the first time in 11 years. Standing in the bustling arrivals hall at Sydney airport last Friday evening, as passengers streamed off a flight from Amman, Jordan via Singapore and were embraced by their families, he bent down to wrap his arms around her and planted a single kiss on her forehead. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Briefing by conservative think-tank Centre for Independent Studies was arranged by a Coalition backbench committee * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Coalition MPs weighing up whether to abandon net zero have been briefed on research that argued “heat deaths aren’t a thing”, played down the prospect of substantial sea level rises and claimed “no one has ever made low-cost energy” from wind and solar. Guardian Australia has viewed slides from a presentation the conservative thinktank Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) gave to MPs in Canberra this week, along with the findings of private polling on net zero. Continue reading...

Australian authorities have been accused of copying the ‘worst tactics of ICE’ in their treatment of the NZYQ cohort * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Adnan* says he had never heard of Nauru when Australian Border Force officers showed up at his door in the middle of the night to inform him Nauru had granted him a 30-year visa. Initially believing Nauru was part of Australia, Adnan felt a brief sense of relief before he realised he was being sent back to a place he had become uncomfortably familiar with – immigration detention. Continue reading...

Australian authorities have been accused of copying the ‘worst tactics of ICE’ in their treatment of the NZYQ cohort

National scientific agency has been ‘reshaping its research portfolio’ since 2024, to deal with an imminent funding cliff * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The mood in parts of Australia’s national scientific agency is low after a mystery number of AI, robotics and data researchers were quietly let go within the last year. Since the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation announced it was “reshaping its research portfolio” to deal with an imminent funding cliff in 2024, speculation about whose jobs are on the line has spread like wildfire. Continue reading...

The Australian government is spending millions of dollars a year to house asylum seekers, yet many say they can not afford food and are forced to skip meals

Australian human rights expert who was on UN commission of inquiry labels Israel’s strategy a failure that ‘has not brought peace and has not destroyed Hamas’

Exclusive: A sixteenfold increase in the original contract without public notification raises allegations of ‘gross mismanagement’ and a process ‘run out of control’

Several MPs say the activist group’s advertising push is becoming a problem for the party because ‘you cannot win from the margins’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Several Liberal MPs have raised concerns an anti-immigration campaign by the activist group Advance is hurting the party’s brand and alienating migrant communities. Analysis of Advance’s Meta advertising since May’s federal election shows it has promoted 44 anti-immigration ads, with more than 1.5m impressions. Continue reading...

Israel’s prime minister accuses Australian leader of ‘abandoning’ Jews as tension escalates over visa cancellation and Palestinian recognition

The move follows Australia’s refusal of a visa for the far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman

Charismatic senator Alex Antic has risen to the top of factional state politics, bringing his conservative religious supporters with him. Is it a roadmap for the national Liberal party’s existential c...

Poor management of contracts worth more than $3.5bn has led to critical failures, including during a Vanuatu cyclone humanitarian operation, the ANAO says * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Defence officials failed to properly document and investigate bribery allegations made against navy contractor officials, a scathing audit report on the multibillion-dollar commissioning and maintenance of two military ships has found. Defence also determined a senior official involved in finding a supplier to take on a $700m maintenance and upkeep contract – who took a job offer with the winning contractor in the middle of the process – did not give rise to a conflict of interest. Continue reading...

New offshoot named Advance Generations endorsed by former PM as group calls Welcome to Country ceremonies a ‘tool to indoctrinate’ children * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The rightwing lobby group Advance will court donations from deceased estates with the blessing of former prime minister Tony Abbott as part of its latest efforts to fundraise for its campaign war chest. Advance targeted the Greens at the latest federal election, claiming success after the minor party lost three lower house seats, including one held by former leader Adam Bandt. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Exclusive: Leaked documents claim Good Advice promised private deals, gathered signatures and hired land council members to smooth way for Northern Territory gas sales

Melika and Betissa visited the place they fled as children and fell ‘in love’ with its rich culture. But then bombs began to fall again * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Iran that Melika and Betissa rediscovered after 38 years was a “wondrous” land until, once more, the bombs began to fall. The Sydney sisters had fled their birthplace Iran as children in 1987, amid the violence and the tumult of the Iran-Iraq war. Continue reading...

Independent senator disputes Anthony Albanese’s claim allegations against Greens-turned-Labor senator have been ‘dealt with’

UK suspends trade negotiations over ‘monstrous’ rhetoric as Gaza starvation worsens

New York-based writer Anna Silman talks to Nour Haydar about the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican

New federal Greens leader says current political climate an opportunity for ‘real reform’ on environmental protections

Analysis of online ad data shows parties and affiliated groups spent more than $39m for political ads across Facebook, YouTube and Google search since 28 March

Benjamin Britton, standing in the seat of Whitlam, told a rightwing podcast Australia’s education system ‘brainwashed’ students with Marxist ideology, and praised Isle of Man flat tax

Letter from Knesset members addressed to Queensland LNP backbencher Andrew Wallace was distributed at event he hosted, attended by several Coalition MPs and senators