Saltwater, survival backstroke and sheer mind over matter may have helped the teenager save his family, experts say * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An Australian 13-year-old who swam 4km (2.49 miles) to shore and then ran 2km (1.24 miles) to get help for his stranded family has been described as “superhuman”. Experts say Austin Appelbee’s feat of endurance exceeded the limits of what is normally perceived as possible. So how was the teenager able to save the day, and is there any precedent for it? Continue reading...

Exclusive: Leaked documents show how universities will be assessed under new system, which was fast-tracked after Bondi terror attack * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Universities will be graded on how well they “deal with” protests, encampments and the display of flags as part of a controversial antisemitism report card system adopted by the Albanese government after the Bondi terror attack, according to documents seen by Guardian Australia. The antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, devised the report card system as part of a wide-ranging plan handed down to the federal government last July to combat antisemitism, which also proposed withholding government funding from universities that “facilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism”. Continue reading...

The Puerto Rican singer’s highly anticipated Super Bowl half-time show has inspired non-Spanish speakers to study Puerto Rican dialect and slang Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday entirely in Spanish – which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language. In October, the Puerto Rican singer – born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!” Continue reading...

Satellite photographs show rows of gravestones removed and soil disturbed at the Gaza War Cemetery where more than 250 Australians are buried * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Australian government has vowed to repair the graves of dozens of Australian soldiers in Gaza after satellite imagery and witness testimony revealed they had been bulldozed by the Israel Defense Forces. But it could be months or years before authorities can access the Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza and Australian graves might face further damage as conflict continues in the occupied territory. Continue reading...

Cauchi, who lived with schizophrenia, killed six people in 2024 Westfield shopping centre stabbing before being shot dead by police inspector Amy Scott * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It was a “major failing” for Joel Cauchi’s former psychiatrist not to recognise he had relapsed in the lead up to the Bondi Junction stabbings in 2024, a coroner has found. The state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, handed down her findings in an 837-page report on Thursday after she had delayed its release following the Bondi beach terror attack in December. Continue reading...

Backlash grows against Israel president Isaac Herzog’s planned visit next week with calls to rescind invitation * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has urged critics of a visit to Australia by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to consider the context of the trip, insisting Jewish leaders had urged the government to issue an invitation. Herzog’s visit to Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney next week is prompting a growing backlash. Herzog, Israel’s head of state, was invited by the governor general, Sam Mostyn, to meet Jewish community members mourning the 15 victims of the Bondi terror attack. Continue reading...

The work of strengthening social cohesion begins with a commitment to responsible language and civility that goes beyond legislation * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast As I travel the world, I am reminded again and again that the health of a society is revealed not only in its laws or its institutions but in the way its people speak to, and about, one another. My father taught that nonviolence begins with language and the discipline to choose words that uplift rather than degrade, that clarify rather than distort and that build community rather than fracture it. Last month in the United States, we marked the holiday that bears his name at a time when our own social cohesion is under immense strain. The rhetoric of public life has grown sharper, more cynical and more divisive. Too often, we speak as if our neighbours are adversaries rather than fellow citizens. But this erosion of respect is not unique to America. It is a global challenge and Australia is not exempt. Continue reading...

Parliamentary Budget Office figures show top 1% of taxpayers will receive nearly 60% of the benefit this financial year Australia’s capital gains tax discount will cost nearly $250bn over the next decade, more than twice as much as the concession has cost in its entire 25-year history. Continue reading...

Resort where family was staying conducting a safety review after mother and two children found drifting in ocean * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast WorkSafe WA is making ‘initial enquiries’ into the hotel that hired out a kayak and inflatable paddleboards to a family who was washed out to sea and later rescued. The Appelbee family was on holiday in Quindalup, 200km (125 miles) south of Perth, when strong winds pushed their vessels offshore from Geographe Bay on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

The donations were disclosed through the Australian Electoral Commission on 2 February – but not through the state-level disclosure system * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Adani donated more than $600,000 to the Liberal National party of Queensland before the 2024 state election, making it the party’s largest single federal donor. But the donations were not disclosed for a year, with the Greens blaming a loophole in federal electoral funding laws that allowed it to not disclose it in real time. Continue reading...

The author’s fourth novel offers a devastating day in the life of a 10-year-old boy who cannot be kept safe * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email First, a confession: having opened Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s new novel Bugger, I put it down again for a month. I knew – at least in outline – what was coming, and I knew it would be hard to read. This is Ahmad’s fourth novel, following works including The Tribe and its sequel, the Miles Franklin-shortlisted The Lebs. As with Ahmad’s earlier writing, Bugger is layered and politically attuned, attentive to the intersections of race, class, gender and power. But where The Lebs expands outward into the violent social world of Punchbowl high dchool, Bugger does the opposite, spiralling inward over the course of one day, towards a single devastating moment. Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

Malcolm Turnbull says government is ‘engaged in an exercise of denial’, as defence minister insists $368bn deal is ‘full steam ahead’ * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia’s submarine agency insists the Aukus agreement is progressing “at pace and on schedule”, but skeptics of the $368bn deal argue the chances of the US ever selling promised Virginia-class submarines to Australia are increasingly remote. The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said the Australian government is engaged “in an exercise of denial” about the parlous state of Aukus’s progress, while the Greens senator David Shoebridge said the deal was a “pantomime”, hopelessly one-sided in America’s favour. Continue reading...

Mining, resources and big fossil fuels donated more than $10m, or $62m if Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy donation to his Trumpet of Patriots party is included * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Technology, fossil fuels and financial sector donors gave millions to Australian political parties ahead of the 2025 election, while lobby groups, gambling firms and hotels companies also chipped in. Analysis of Australian Electoral Commission data from the 2024-25 financial year found companies and individuals with interests in the tech sector donated more than $13m to the Labor, Liberal and Greens parties. Continue reading...

Lester’s 1990 classic about the wonders of nature wins Guardian Australia poll ahead of Possum Magic in second place * Alison Lester interview: ‘Everything I do looks a bit like a stuffed toy’ * Children on their favourite picture book: ‘I also like that the dad cries’ Magic Beach by Alison Lester has won Guardian Australia’s poll to find Australia’s best children’s picture book of all time. More than 100,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 27 January. Aside from the first day, when Possum Magic by Mem Fox and illustrator Julie Vivas took an early lead, Magic Beach was the most voted for book every other day of the count. Continue reading...

* First Australian in action qualifies for big air final in Livigno * Schedule | Latest results | Medal table | Full coverage Young gun Valentino Guseli has nailed his last jump to clinch a place in the finals of the Olympic snowboard big air event after only being given a start when another athlete withdrew. The 20-year-old went large on his third and final jump at Livigno’s Snow Park and scored a 91.50 to cement the last spot in the 12-man final. After scoring 73.25 on his first run and 71.50 on his second, Guseli knew he needed something special to qualify into the final on Sunday (0530 AEDT). Continue reading...

With the announcement of two new facilities outside of Melbourne, could regional Victoria become a hotspot for data centres?

Campaigners say they appreciate attempt to use Cornish but mistake points to need for more access to language Shoppers in Cornwall could have been forgiven for feeling bemused after a supermarket put up bilingual signs – in Welsh. A branch of Tesco in Helston – about 200 miles from south Wales by road – pointed shoppers towards pysgod, which is Welsh, not Cornish, for fish. It also labelled sweet potato as tatws melys – again Welsh instead of Cornish. Continue reading...

Cameron Murphy, one of three MLCs to rally next week, says ‘we should not be welcoming to Australia the head of a state engaged in an ongoing genocide’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast NSW Labor backbenchers have vowed to attend a Sydney protest against a visit by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, with one stating he’s attending because Australia should not be welcoming the head of a state engaged in an “ongoing genocide”. Another member of the government said he was attending – despite the premier opposing any rallies – to show that “Bondi was not caused by such protests”. Continue reading...

Constellations, a series of events compiled after Adelaide festival board scrapped AWW, will run from 28 February to 5 March * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The two figures at the centre of the Adelaide festival controversy will reunite to headline the alternative to the cancelled 2026 Adelaide writers’ week. Palestinian Australian academic and writer Randa Abdel-Fattah and AWW’s former director Louise Adler will appear together at Constellations: Not Writers’ Week, a hastily compiled series of events scheduled to start on 28 February in response to the Adelaide festival board’s decision to scrap Australia’s flagship annual literary festival. Continue reading...

Billionaire says he spoke to former Trump strategist once, when he mistook him for a potential donor, denying claims revealed in the Jeffrey Epstein files * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Clive Palmer has denied Steve Bannon helped direct his advertising blitz in the 2019 federal election, suggesting texts published in the Jeffrey Epstein files about the strategy were an attempt by the former Trump strategist to “increase his own influence” by claiming credit. Palmer said he’d never communicated with Epstein – a convicted sex offender – and only ever spoke with Bannon in one brief, unexpected, late-night phone call. Continue reading...

Opposition leader may announce promotion of six MPs to shadow cabinet early amid deadlock in talks to reunite with Nationals Sussan Ley could bring forward the announcement of a permanent Liberal-only frontbench that cements the Coalition split, as hopes of a reunion with the Nationals fade. The opposition leader and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, held another round of peace talks before question time on Wednesday but neither party was prepared to budge on their core demands. Continue reading...

Despite hearing many words of warning about expressing public affection, travelling in Japan with my boyfriend helped me loosen up * More summer essentials The first time I saw gay people on TV, it was during an ABC news package about Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. My Egyptian parents were chomping through a bag of dried pumpkin seeds when the assault on our eyeballs took place. Muscle bears in backless chaps, shirtless lifesavers in tiny budgie smugglers, chunky women with buzzcuts and saucer-plate nipples revving their Harley-Davidsons down the strip. It was too much for my father, who announced: “Atstaghfurallah: they should not show such things.” Mum just sucked her teeth in dismay. But the sight of all the handsome, gleaming men sent a hot flush of excitement up my 12-year-old cheeks. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...