Category Archives: Australia news

Boss of theatre hosting Chinese dance group Shen Yun in Sydney won’t be intimidated by ‘outrageous’ threats

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Graeme Kearns, chief executive of Foundation Theatres, says: ‘Our job in theatre is to absolutely defend the right to tell stories about culture’

The head of the theatre hosting the Shen Yun dance troupe in Sydney says the company would not be intimidated to pull the shows by any “outrageous” anonymous threats and that the publicity had increased interest in the show.

On Monday, the Gold Coast venue for the Shen Yun performances was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat, with a similar threat forcing the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s official residence, The Lodge, in Canberra the next day.

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Anxiety mounts across Middle East amid fears of US-Iran war

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People across region are bracing for possibility of conflict as embassies evacuate staff and flights are cancelled

Anxiety is growing over a potential war between Iran and the US in the Middle East, with embassies evacuating staff and airlines cancelling flights as tensions mount.

As critical talks over Iran’s nuclear programme entered their second round on Thursday night, and a vast US military buildup continued in the Middle East, the Trump administration warned of drastic consequences if Iranian negotiators failed to make significant concessions.

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Pauline Hanson’s daughter employed in taxpayer-funded job with NSW One Nation senator

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Exclusive: Tasmanian Lee Hanson employed as senior adviser to Sean Bell in role worth as much as $180,000

One Nation has employed Pauline Hanson’s Tasmanian-based daughter as a senior adviser to a New South Wales senator, in a taxpayer-funded role worth as much as $180,000 a year.

Guardian Australia can reveal that Lee Hanson, who lives just outside Hobart, was appointed as the senior adviser to Senator Sean Bell in October last year.

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‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies

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Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases

ChatGPT Health regularly misses the need for medical urgent care and frequently fails to detect suicidal ideation, a study of the AI platform has found, which experts worry could “feasibly lead to unnecessary harm and death”.

OpenAI launched the “Health” feature of ChatGPT to limited audiences in January, which it promotes as a way for users to “securely connect medical records and wellness apps” to generate health advice and responses. More than 40 million people reportedly ask ChatGPT for health-related advice every day.

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Albanese should demand reparations from Israel, say families of Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed

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A third family says the Australian government must do more to hold Israel and the Israeli Defence Force to account, including demanding an apology

The families of dead Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza have called for reparations and urged the Albanese government to hold Israel accountable.

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the IDF had bulldozed parts of the Gaza War Cemetery – the resting place of Australian, British and Canadian soldiers who served in the first and second world wars.

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Minns government undermined own goal with NSW protest restrictions, constitutional challenge hears

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Lawyer for protest groups argues state needs to prove it was ‘rational to prevent all protests’ to achieve social cohesion

Lawyers for three protest groups have argued a Minns government law which effectively banned marches in Sydney’s CBD made its own objective of enhancing social cohesion “worse”.

On Thursday the NSW court of appeal heard the constitutional challenge against the anti-protest law, which was passed in the wake of the Bondi terror.

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Grace Tame says ‘spare me the condescension, old man’ after Albanese defends ‘difficult’ comment

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PM clarifies remark but says he disagrees with some language the 2021 Australian of the Year has used

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has said “we all know what you meant” after the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, claimed he meant to describe her “difficult life” when he labelled her “difficult”.

Speaking in Melbourne on Thursday morning, the prime minister said he had not meant to describe Tame as “difficult” at a News Corp event on Wednesday, when he was asked to describe public figures in one word. Instead he meant that her life had been “difficult”, he said.

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Wieambilla police shootings property listed for sale for $190,000

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Son of Nathaniel and Stacey Train says he is ‘hoping for a quick sale to someone who will be respectful of the property, considering its history’

The site of the Wieambilla ambush, Queensland’s worst police shooting, is up for sale.

In 2022, conspiracy theorists Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train killed constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow at their remote property at 251 Wains Road, about 300km west of Brisbane.

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Jacinda Ardern living and working in Australia after move from US

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Exclusive: Former New Zealand PM ‘based out of Australia’, according to spokesperson, after rumours she was looking for houses in Sydney

The former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is living in Australia with her family, a spokesperson has confirmed.

“The family has been travelling for a few years now,” her office told the Guardian.

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Three-quarters of Australia’s new cars use more fuel than advertised lab rating, testing shows

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Cars with higher real-world consumption may add to Australia’s difficulties in reducing transport emissions

Another 10 cars have failed to live up to fuel efficiency promises when tested in the real world, adding to Australia’s difficulties in reducing emissions from transport.

The Australian Automobile Association’s latest test confirmed 76% of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles are still using more fuel on roads than in mandatory lab testing.

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Where will Victoria’s new homes be built? Competing Liberal and Labor visions are as much about politics as planning

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Jess Wilson’s housing plan offers little that is truly new – but Jacinta Allan claims it draws a line through Melbourne and locks millennials out

A genuine policy contest has finally broken out over housing in Victoria – but it is as much about politics as it is about planning.

The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, on Wednesday announced a plan to expand Melbourne’s capital city zone – effectively expanding the CBD to take in Collingwood, Fitzroy, Fishermans Bend, North Melbourne, Parkville and parts of Southbank not already included. This will mean height limits can be lifted, density increased and development encouraged to “restore vibrancy” to the city.

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After a turbulent year, Australia’s Khaled Sabsabi will present not one but two works at the Venice Biennale

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The artist, who was controversially revoked and then reinstated by his government, is planning a ‘nurturing experience’ to bring people together

Australia’s presentation at the Venice Biennale in May will be a “nurturing experience” designed to bring people together – in the aftermath one of the most turbulent and divisive periods in the country’s 72-year history at the prestigious international art festival.

Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino, who were controversially dumped and then reinstated as Australia’s representatives, will present not one but two major works at the Venice Biennale in May – both informed by Sabsabi’s practice as a Sufi Muslim and exploring “spirituality, migration, and the vastness of shared humanity”.

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Citizen scientists discover a Great Barrier Reef coral giant ‘like a rolling meadow’

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Volunteer group Citizens of the Reef made the find as part of the Great Reef Census

Citizen scientists have discovered what they believe is one of the largest coral colonies ever documented on the Great Barrier Reef.

The coral spans approximately 111 metres in maximum length and covers an estimated area of 3,973 sq m – about half the size of a soccer field.

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Chris Baghsarian: human remains found in search for kidnapped Sydney man, NSW police say

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NSW detectives have located what they believe are human remains near a golf club in Pitt Town, 11 days after 85-year-old abducted from North Ryde home

Police believe the body of missing 85-year-old Chris Baghsarian could have been dumped on Sydney’s outskirts just 40 hours after he was kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity.

New South Wales police said they had found human remains near a golf club in Pitt Town at about 8am on Tuesday.

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Maxi Shield, beloved Australian drag queen and Drag Race Down Under star, dies aged 51

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Performer appeared in closing ceremony of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and was a mainstay of city’s drag scene

One of Australia’s best-known and loved drag queens, Sydney’s Maxi Shield, has died after being diagnosed with throat cancer, prompting tributes from around the world.

Kristopher Elliot, who performed drag under the name Maxi Shield, was 51. Shield was a mainstay of the Sydney drag scene and brought Australian drag to the world as contestant in season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

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High-speed rail link between Sydney and Newcastle could be ‘shovel-ready’ in two years, Albanese government says

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Transport minister Catherine King will pledge $230m for planning work for the first phase of a bullet train on Australia’s east coast

Long-mooted plans for high-speed rail could be “shovel-ready” within two years, according to the federal government, which will on Tuesday announce another $230m for further planning work for fast trains between Sydney and Newcastle, as part of the first phase of an eventual east coast bullet train.

Rail journeys on the new fast train could take as little as one hour between Sydney and Newcastle, and 30 minutes between Sydney and the Central Coast, the transport and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said. It currently takes more than 2.5 hours to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle, and almost 1.5 hours from Sydney to the Central Coast.

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Australia will ‘examine all options’ to avoid new 15% tariffs announced by Donald Trump

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The trade minister, Don Farrell, says Australia has ‘consistently advocated’ against the ‘unjustified tariffs’, after the US president announced new levies

Australia will “examine all options” after the US president Donald Trump announced a temporary 15% tariff would apply to US imports from all countries.

The US president’s move came less than 24 hours after the US supreme court overturned his original 10% import tariff. Shortly after the ruling, Trump announced he was reinstating the 10% duties using a different law before raising it again to 15%.

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Australia news live: SA Labor pledges $100k stamp duty waiver for ‘empty nesters’; Burke says Hanson’s Lakemba comments a national security risk

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The home affairs minister says the One Nation leader was frustrated with the Muslim community because it ‘didn’t give her what she wanted’. Follow live updates

Police investigating the mistaken kidnapping of grandfather Chris Baghsarian are appealing for information about suspicious car fires that could be related to the case, AAP reports.

Hopes are fading of finding the 85-year-old alive, who was taken captive more than a week ago when three men stormed his Sydney home and bundled him into an SUV.

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Tony Burke says Australia has few options to block return of 34 women and children from Syrian camp

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One woman is subject to temporary exclusion order over security concerns, but home affairs minister says group is ‘not consistent’ in their beliefs

Tony Burke says authorities “know the state of mind” of each of the 34 Australian women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp, but says his options to prevent them returning to Australia are limited.

The home affairs minister, who represents a south-western Sydney electorate with a high Muslim population, also warned Pauline Hanson’s recent derogatory comments against Muslims in Australia could incite violence.

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Man charged with hate crime after allegedly ramming gates of Brisbane synagogue with ute

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A 32-year-old has been charged with serious vilification or hate crime and other offences but police say it is not being considered a terrorist incident

Police have charged a man after a car was used to ram the gates of a synagogue in Brisbane.

Officers say the man was driving a Toyota Hilux utility when he knocked down the gates of the property in Margaret Street in Brisbane’s CBD shortly after 7pm on Friday.

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