President Gustavo Petro called for demonstrations after Trump said he was interested in military action in Colombia Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of cities across Colombia to decry Donald Trump’s threats to expand his military campaign in South America into their territory, after last weekend’s deadly attack on Venezuela. In Cúcuta, a city on Colombia’s eastern border with Venezuela, several hundred demonstrators marched towards its 19th century cathedral waving the country’s yellow, blue and red flag and shouting: “Fuera los yanquis!” (“Out with the Yanks!”) Continue reading...

Nine in 10 families are worried about price of back-to-school essentials as inflation continues to bite, research has found * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Budgeting for Laura, a single mother of four, often means deciding between buying enough food or paying her electricity bill on time. “Some weeks we’re good, some weeks we’re down and I have to go into the community and ask for vouchers,” she says. The down weeks have been happening more since the pandemic. Continue reading...

As his 30th birthday loomed in Greece, Steve MinOn sent a letter to his parents in Australia. Then he waited. * Read more summer essentials While day-drinking ouzo in a spiderwebbed taverna on the Greek island of Paros, I decided to write a coming-out letter to my parents. I sealed it in a surface mail envelope, moistened a ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ (Hellenic Republic) stamp with my aniseed tongue and posted it. It was the 1990s and I had only just relocated from Australia to London with Nick, my boyfriend at the time, and Julie, a good mate. We had gone across to Greece for a holiday, island-hopping, catching ferries on a whim, knowing nothing about the places we were visiting except that backpacking there was cheap. Continue reading...

Apricots have hit their peak, and there’s still some time left to enjoy cherry season – but lemons are in short supply Apricots are here for a good time, not a long time. “We’re eating some really good Victorian ones at the moment, then towards the end of this month we’ll get into the Tasmanian ones,” says Graham Gee, senior buyer at the Happy Apple in Melbourne. He’s selling them for $5 to $8 a kilo, depending on variety; his favourite is the moorpark apricot. “They’re not the most beautiful to look at,” he says, “but the flavour is so rich”. Continue reading...

Reserve bank will not find any reason in the new figures to cut rates next month, but the unexpected lower rate should prevent an increase * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A new year and we are straight back into talk of inflation. But while the November inflation figures released on Wednesday were lower than expected, it is unlikely to do much to affect the outlook for interest rates. One of the impacts of having more of something is that each individual piece is less valuable, and so it is with inflation stats. Last year the Bureau of Statistics moved from putting out the official consumer price index figures every quarter to every month. And while that does provide us with more information, it means that each release is given less importance than used to be the case when we had to wait three months for each one. Continue reading...

Unseasonably high rate of influenza, dubbed Super-K, comes as vaccination rates plummet among those most vulnerable, GPs say * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast More than 2,500 Australians have rung in the new year with a highly transmissible new strain of influenza, and health authorities are on alert for what could be Australia’s worst year since tracking began 35 years ago. Last year’s record, when more than half a million Australians contracted a laboratory-certified form of flu and 1,508 people died, was a 44% increase on the 2024 mortality rate. Continue reading...

* Special Ks lose topsy-turvy match 6-0 1-6 (10-6) * Performance bodes well for Kyrgios’s wild card hopes Nick Kyrgios was a motivational speaker, a part-time masseur and a dancer on the way to an entertaining doubles loss in Brisbane, with the defeat unlikely to harm his Australian Open wildcard hopes. Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis looked set for an embarrassing Brisbane International loss after copping a first-set “bagel” in their round-of-16 doubles match against No 6 seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul. Continue reading...

Friends of Palestine has criticised the decision to invite Israel’s head of state to Australia in a sign of further strain within the Labor movement A group of rank-and-file Labor Party members has urged the Albanese government to rescind its invitation for Israeli president Isaac Herzog to visit Australia, voicing outrage over his country’s military bombardment of Gaza. In signs of further strain inside the Labor movement over the war in the Middle East and the response to the Bondi antisemitic terror attack, the Labor Friends of Palestine group said that, if Herzog does travel to Australia, federal police should investigate him for his role in what they alleged was incitement of genocide – an outcome international law experts say is unlikely to occur. Continue reading...

Study into intimate partner violence finds strangulation and head impacts increase risk of long-term memory loss and cognitive disabilities * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast An Australian-first study has strengthened evidence that intimate partner violence can cause lasting brain injuries, leading to memory loss, learning disabilities and other long-term cognitive problems. A Monash University study published in the Journal of Neurotrauma found that survivors of domestic violence who experienced repeated head impacts or non-fatal strangulation were more likely to show behavioural and cognitive changes, including impaired memory, seizures and slurred speech. Continue reading...

Cases of the highly contagious virus jumped nearly threefold in 2025 as immunisation rates declined * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Health authorities across Australia are on high alert as measles cases rise across the country, fuelled by summer international travel and a decline in childhood vaccination rates. Data from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) has found that for the first time in 10 years, Australia’s early childhood vaccination coverage has slipped below the critical 95% threshold required for herd immunity. Continue reading...

Millions of dollars held by Revenue NSW includes uncashed cheques, refunds and other payments owed to individuals who may have died or changed address * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast New South Wales residents are being urged to check if they are owed some of the $300m sitting in Revenue NSW’s unclaimed money pool. The pool includes funds from overpayments, uncashed cheques, dividends, refunds, and other amounts owed to individuals the government has not been able to contact. Continue reading...

Ronda was a beauty in every sense, and her love for her human and canine family was as unencumbered as it was uncomplicated Each time a family dogs dies I go over it all again and decide that the intense grief is far outweighed by the joy the animal brought to our lives. And, so, it is yet again with Ronda – the raven-black, shiny, fine-boned labrador, soft-hearted and so very beautiful, euthanised after spending 12 of her 13 years with us. Continue reading...

I’ve swum and squealed alongside enormous blue gropers, tiny stingrays, silver and striped fish and even a Port Jackson shark * More summer essentials I’ve wanted to be an ocean swimmer ever since I moved to Sydney. The idea of getting out past the waves and braving the elements excited me. I would tell anyone who would listen: “Once I live closer to the beach, I’m going to be out there. Just you wait.” I’ve lived walking distance to the beach for more than a year now. During this time, I’ve read a lot about ocean swimming: how swimmers overcame challenges or life-altering moments. I even listened to a podcast on how to face your fears in the ocean. Continue reading...

It promises to be a marvellous year ahead for OzLit, with new books from the likes of Kate Grenville, Siang Lu, Antoinette Lattouf, Shaun Micallef, Judith Lucy and more * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Alien abductions, menopausal mermaids, a single-sentence novel and a cursed vagina; Australian literature in 2026 is looking marvellously unhinged. Here’s a sneak peek. Continue reading...

Flooding across the state’s north and west blocks roads and cuts off towns at a time of year when so many are on holidays * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Over the weekend, Narelle Hetherington got a call from a couple planning a more than 1,000km trip across Queensland. The drive would see them pass through Winton, where Hetherington runs a motel – the couple wanted a room. “I’m like, ‘mate, the roads are all cut off out here,’” Hetherington says. Continue reading...

At least 6.9 million residents on Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart fringes exposed as dry summer follows years of vegetation growth * Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here Many Australian cities share common traits that made the deadly 2025 Los Angeles fires so destructive, according to analysis into whether a similar disaster could occur here in future. At least 6.9 million Australians living on the fringes of capital cities were at risk, according to a report by the Climate Council and Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, challenging assumptions that bushfires are a regional or rural concern. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...

Over-by-over updates from Sydney Cricket Ground Play starts at 10am local at the SCG/11pm GMT Live scorecard | The Ashes top 100 | Email Rob Hello and welcome to live coverge of day three at the SCG. There’s a big first session comi- ah, I can’t be bothered. Sure, the first session could shape the rest of this match, and tell us whether Travis Head is going to make a third matchwinning century of the series, but it’s impossible to escape the end-of-term feeling that has pervaded this Test so far. We’re used to dead rubbers in Ashes series, particularly when England play in Australia. This feels flatter than the rest, probably because we expected so much more this time. There isn’t even the jeopardy of a potential whitewash; the series will either end 4-1 or 3-2 to Australia. Continue reading...

It’s open to interpretation * See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading...

Fire dangers are expected to reach extreme levels in South Australia, Victoria, and inland NSW this week More than half of Australia is set to swelter in blistering temperatures in what is expected to be the worst heatwave since the devastating Black Summer bushfires. The Bureau of Meteorology warned that dry, hot conditions will create extreme fire conditions across multiple states as temperatures top 45C in parts of the country. Continue reading...

Manufacturing workers union wants capital gains tax discount to be reduced and then phased out and an effective end to negative gearing * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A trade union has called for sweeping changes to housing tax breaks that it warns have “commodified” property and worsened inequality. The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) wants the capital gains discount phased out for investment properties and negative gearing effectively abolished. Continue reading...

Newcomer Lila McGuire is outstanding as the former world No 1, her story unfolding over three well-paced, captivating and graceful episodes Productions that recount the lives of great sportspeople are often laden with a rah-rah-rah, “win at all costs” mentality that I find about as appealing as a fart in an elevator. But watching the ABC’s new series about Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley – a former world No 1 whose accomplishments include seven grand slam singles titles – it is soon clear this will be something else, something deeper. Her story unfolds over three well-paced episodes with a refreshing kind of gracefulness. While it is perhaps not must-see viewing, it’s well above standard sports fare and I remained captivated throughout. From the start, director Wayne Blair (whose recent work includes Plum, Bay of Fires and Mystery Road: Origin season two) sets a contemplative tone, with light-filled compositions and a flashback structure that fluidly oscillates between past and present – less like a tennis to-and-fro than streams of water crossing and intersecting. Continue reading...

The stage and screen actor on turning gaffes into gifts, the impact of Eowyn, and the Lord of the Rings stew scene fans won’t stop asking about * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Your latest role is Queen of the Cuttlefish, in The Pout-Pout Fish; if you could be a fish for a day, which one would it be and why? The blue groper at Clovelly beach – because it’s like an institution, and people go there to see it. I just think it’s cool that there’s a local fish that people actually go and see and talk about – it’s a special fish. Continue reading...