Category Archives: Australia news

Trump’s $2bn bonanza heralds the rise of political grifters across the west

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With voters embracing leaders who brazenly monetise public office, experts say an ethical code is breaking down

Donald Trump came to office in 2017 after decades of bankruptcies and business failures. Yes, he was rich, but his latest financial disclosure, published this week, suggests he will depart billions richer.

In the first year of his second term, he made more than $2bn from Trump hotels, Trump golf courses, Trump cryptocurrency, Trump watches, Trump cologne, Trump Bibles and more.

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Woman charged with murder after body of four-year-old boy found in Central Coast home

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Police are investigating what happened to a boy who was found with significant arm injuries

A woman has been charged with murder after police found the body of a preschooler at a home on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Police rushed to the home at Wyong after a 32-year-old woman presented to the local police station on Saturday.

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Norfolk Island’s unique corals under triple threat from disease, El Niño and now government-approved dredging

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Exclusive: Most of the island’s corals are likely to be species that have not been formally described by science, researcher says

Scientists fear unique corals that fringe Australia’s remote Norfolk Island could disappear because of a triple threat of disease, El Niño and a federal government plan to dredge a neighbouring shipping channel.

A failure to manage sediment and pollution washing into bays from cattle farming, cleared land along with wastewater has been blamed for widespread disease and outbreaks of algae over the corals.

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Third teenager charged after 15-year-old Melbourne boy allegedly left to die from stab wounds

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Darweish Mohamed was found critically wounded outside Craigieburn community hospital on Wednesday evening

A third teenager has been charged over the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy found outside a Melbourne hospital.

A 14-year-old from Victoria’s Hume area was arrested on Friday evening and was charged with murder, police said.He has been scheduled to appear before a children’s court.

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Cold feet and cooling prices: Australia’s property market is transforming – and first home buyers aren’t biting

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Exclusive: Data shows buyers are not rushing to get into the market, despite lower prices and less competition

First home buyers are starting to step back and investor demand is slumping in all areas except new property, as Australia’s housing market enters a downturn.

Research shows the market is transforming, nearly two months on from a third consecutive interest rate rise and sweeping tax reforms.

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One Nation is campaigning directly to Christians. But will party policies rub against worshippers’ conscience?

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Anti-abortion policies may have appeal, but with one in three Australian churchgoers born overseas, talk of a monoculture may put them off

When One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce addressed anti-abortion campaigners at a Sydney rally in early June, the former deputy prime minister told the audience he could see “about 1,500 people who can hand out how to vote cards”.

Christian leaders spoke at the rally. The Lord’s Prayer was recited. Many there were active churchgoers.

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Details of MCG assault against Lidia Thorpe revealed after court lifts suppression order

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Ebony Bell convicted and handed community work order following assault on senator and second ‘gratuitous act of violence’ while on bail

A woman has been handed a community work order for punching Lidia Thorpe outside the MCG over claims the independent senator disrespected her mother.

Ebony Bell was initially told to undertake an anger management course after her 2024 attack on Thorpe, but committed a second “gratuitous act of violence” while on bail, the Melbourne magistrates court was told in June.

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Jacinta Allan admits criminals infiltrated Big Build but rejects calls for royal commission

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Premier apologised over organised crime in some of Victoria’s largest construction projects, in op-ed that claimed a royal commission would not solve the issue

Jacinta Allan has admitted that criminals have infiltrated some of Victoria’s largest construction projects – but has again rejected growing calls for a royal commission into alleged corruption involving unions and labour hire companies.

In an opinion piece published in the Age on Thursday night, the premier wrote that “we now know that criminals operated on some of Victoria’s construction sites” during projects dubbed by the Labor government as the Big Build.

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Moira Deeming wins temporary reprieve as Victorian Liberal party postpones decision on her future

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State opposition tells court it will not take any steps to disendorse MP while legal proceedings under way

A Victorian Liberal MP who sued her party to stave off a meeting that will determine her political future has been handed a temporary lifeline.

Moira Deeming launched an eleventh-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, and the party on Friday morning, seeking a temporary injunction to stop the meeting.

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NSW records first suspected case of deadly H5 bird flu as virus reaches Australia’s east coast

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Migratory giant petrel discovered near Hawks Nest north of Newcastle infected with H5. Testing under way to determine if it’s highly pathogenic H5N1 strain

New South Wales has its first suspected case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a giant petrel that was found near Hawks Nest, north of Newcastle, on the state’s coast.

If CSIRO testing confirms it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, it would mark the first detection of the deadly disease on the Australian east coast.

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AFP assessing allegation of Gaza war crimes committed by Australian citizen serving in IDF

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Claims against Israel Defense Forces battalion include deliberate targeting and destruction of residential buildings in 2023 and 2024 without military justification

Australian federal police investigators are assessing a brief detailing alleged war crimes committed by an Australian citizen serving in the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza.

A 61-page brief has been handed to the AFP by the Australian Centre for International Justice detailing alleged war crimes committed by an IDF battalion in Gaza across 2023 and 2024.

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Australians have more negative view of Israel than of China, Guardian Essential poll finds

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Poll also finds perception of Donald Trump has soured since his re-election, with fewer than a third of respondents viewing him positively

Australians have a more negative view of Israel than of China, the latest Guardian Essential poll has found, with women and middle-aged people exhibiting the least positive perception of Israel.

The poll also finds Australians’ perceptions of Donald Trump have tumbled since his re-election, with fewer than a third of voters having a positive response to the US president.

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Social media platforms ‘monetise gore and fringe content’, eSafety regulator tells antisemitism commission

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Julie Inman Grant singles out X when giving evidence to royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion

Mainstream platforms are fighting to distribute and monetise “gore” and “fringe” content, the eSafety watchdog has told the antisemitism royal commission.

Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, on Thursday singled out X, telling the inquiry her office has to fight its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, to try to keep footage – including some posted of the Bondi terror attack – restricted or off the platform.

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‘Obviously disturbing’ if Christian Brothers’ $1 property sales deprive abuse survivors of pay, government tells court

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Concerns Catholic order’s historical transfers of millions in assets were potentially inappropriate, NSW supreme court hears

Lawyers for the federal government say they are concerned at the “disturbing” potential that the Christian Brothers Catholic order may have inappropriately transferred property to another entity years before claiming it was broke and couldn’t afford to pay abuse survivors’ civil claims.

The New South Wales supreme court on Thursday ordered a moratorium on all abuse claims against the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order that played a significant role in the church’s child sexual abuse scandal.

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Melbourne stabbing: teenagers arrested after boy left outside Craigieburn hospital dies

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Fifteen-year-old unable to be saved after being left outside Craigieburn Community hospital

Two teenagers have been arrested after a 15-year-old boy was left for dead with suspected stab wounds outside a hospital in Melbourne.

The boy was found critically injured outside Craigieburn Community hospital on Lygon Drive, in Melbourne’s north, about 7.50pm on Wednesday.

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‘Life-saving’ drug for people with opioid dependency to be pulled from Australia by end of year

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Exclusive: Fears that US companies may withdraw more medicines as global markets react to policy changes by the Trump administration

A “life-saving” drug heavily subsidised for Australians living with opioid dependency will be pulled from the market by the end of the year, causing alarm among doctors and pharmacists.

US pharmaceutical company Indivior confirmed the marketing and sale of the long-acting injectable prescription opioid Sublocade would end from 31 December, with a company spokesperson describing it as a “commercial decision”.

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Guardian Essential poll: voters reject key One Nation policies as support slips

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Survey shows two-point fall in vote amid concern about Pauline Hanson’s links to Gina Rinehart and ability to run country

Australians have emphatically rejected some of One Nation’s key policies, including shutting down SBS and ending multiculturalism, with voters raising concerns about Pauline Hanson’s closeness to the billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and whether the party has the skills needed to run the country, according to a new poll.

But even as the latest Guardian Essential poll finds voters have major reservations about Hanson and her party, more than half of respondents said they were either definitely or at least considering voting for One Nation at the next election.

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‘But we’re just 1% of emissions’: do smaller countries’ climate efforts matter?

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Past and present leaders of wealthy nations such as UK and Germany have argued their actions are insignificant

On first hearing, it is a position that sounds reasonable. “When our share of global emissions is less than 1%,” Rishi Sunak argued when he was the UK prime minister in 2023, “how can it be right that British citizens are now being told to sacrifice even more than others?”

Sunak is not the only world leader to have cited such figures while delaying cuts to pollution. In 2019, Scott Morrison, Australia’s then prime minister, used his country’s 1.3% of global emissions to reject any suggestion Australia was not “doing our bit” on climate breakdown. In July, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pointed to his country’s 2% share of global emissions while supporting loopholes in European climate targets. A few months later the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, followed suit, flagging the EU’s 6% share.

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House prices fall in four capital cities as Sydney values drop nearly $50,000 this year

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More than half of homes taken to auction not selling while median property price in Adelaide started to slide in June

House prices are now falling in four capital cities with the Adelaide market beginning to slide in June, while Sydney values have dropped by $48,000 since the start of the year.

Data from Cotality, released on Wednesday, showed Sydney and Melbourne recorded their biggest one-month decline in values since August 2022, falling 1.2% and 1% respectively.

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Josh Burns says partner Georgie Purcell faces antisemitic abuse because he is Jewish, commission hears

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The royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion hears how witnesses are subjected to hate speech amplified by misogyny

Vile, threatening abuse is being levelled at witnesses to the antisemitism royal commission, the inquiry has heard, while a Labor MP has said attacks on his partner were heightened because they were stacked with misogyny.

Meanwhile, data analysis has shown how quickly factual reports are transformed into conspiracy theories online, and that while there was a spike in antisemitism after the Bondi terror attack, there was a “huge spike” in anti-Muslim hate.

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