Category Archives: Sydney

Baulkham Hills stabbing: woman arrested and three children in hospital after alleged attack in Sydney suburb

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Two girls, boy in stable condition and 46-year-old woman under guard in hospital after alleged attack in Baulkham Hills

A mother has been arrested after she allegedly stabbed her three children multiple times in their home in Sydney’s north-west.

New South Wales police Det Supt Naomi Moore said on Monday that the children’s father woke to yells in their Baulkham Hills home, and secured the kitchen knife from his partner.

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Sydney woman charged after reports novel contained child abuse material

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Police seize copies of novel to be forensically examined as 33-year-old charged with producing child abuse material

A Sydney woman has been charged with producing child abuse material in relation to a novel.

New South Wales police said they began investigations in March “following reports of a fiction novel containing child abuse material”.

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Sydney ‘science nerd’ may face jail for importing plutonium in bid to collect all elements of periodic table

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Emmanuel Lidden, 24, to learn fate after breaching nuclear non-proliferation laws by shipping samples of radioactive material to parents’ suburban home

A “science nerd” who wanted to collect all the elements of the periodic table could face jail time after ordering radioactive material over the internet.

But Emmanuel Lidden, 24, will have to wait to learn his sentence after breaching nuclear non-proliferation laws by shipping samples of plutonium to his parents’ suburban Sydney apartment.

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Australian police drop domestic violence charge against PNG government minister in Sydney

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Petroleum minister Jimmy Maladina was charged after police were called to a Bondi property in July 2024 and found a woman with facial injuries

Australian prosecutors have dropped an assault case alleging a member of the Papua New Guinea cabinet assaulted a woman.

Petroleum minister Jimmy Maladina, 58, was to face a hearing on Thursday over the contested allegation that he assaulted a 31-year-old woman known to him in an eastern Sydney home.

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Lilie James’ ex-boyfriend attempted to control, manipulate and gaslight her before murder, experts say

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Paul Thijssen stalked 21-year-old water polo coach as she ‘attempted to push back against his control’, court hears

Paul Thijssen attempted to control, manipulate and gaslight Lilie James as she tried to leave their short relationship in the days before he murdered her with a hammer, a coronial inquest into their deaths has heard.

James’s body was found with serious head injuries in a gymnasium bathroom in October 2023 at St Andrew’s Cathedral school, where she worked as a water polo coach.

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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

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Ex-boyfriend rehearsed murder of Sydney school coach Lilie James with ‘dry runs’, inquest hears

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Dutch national Paul Thijssen killed St Andrew’s Cathedral school water polo coach in October 2023 before killing himself in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

Paul Thijssen stalked his ex-girlfriend Lilie James and meticulously rehearsed how he would attack the 21-year-old water polo coach in a school bathroom before murdering her, a coronial inquest into their deaths has heard.

James’s body was found with serious head injuries in a gymnasium bathroom at St Andrew’s Cathedral school, where she worked, in October 2023.

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Palestine Action Group launches legal challenge against controversial NSW laws restricting protests

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Group claims laws rushed through after wave of antisemitism in state are ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘undemocratic’

A legal challenge has been launched against controversial New South Wales laws aimed at curbing antisemitism and which give police broad powers to restrict protests near places of worship.

The Palestine Action Group filed the challenge in the NSW supreme court on Monday, arguing in the statement of claim that the laws were invalid because the change “impermissibly burdens the implied [commonwealth] constitutional freedom of communication on government or political matters”.

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New drugs added to PBS; alleged e-scooter bandit arrested – as it happened

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Bandt: government could deliver cheap renewable energy

The Australian government could use publicly owned electricity generators and retailers such as Snowy Hydro to offer power at cost to households and businesses, Bandt says.

I think a surplus mentality, understanding that we have got an enormous amount of sun and wind and if we back it up with storage, we could really drive down the cost of electricity in this country, and make it a place that you bring your businesses to from overseas, deliver cheap electricity for households. A mind shift is needed and the government could play a big role in that given its stake in a publicly owned generator.

We need to fast-track the build of renewables and also of storage.

But look, we have to wait to see – is there a peace [deal]? What is the agreement? What is the request that is being made? There are things that could be done right now, though. The ABC reported a couple of weeks ago that Australia is still the largest buyer of Russian oil. And it’s meant to be sanctions imposed.

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NSW police say off-duty officers’ shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar boom’ after dispute with Muslim man were ‘banter between friends’

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‘The chanting you heard was not directed at you in any way,’ inspector tells Sydney man who complained about neighbour’s Christmas party in Glenmore Park

A NSW police internal investigation has found that off-duty officers who allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar boom” and “Hezbollah” at a Christmas party after a verbal dispute with a Muslim man who lived next door were indulging in “banter between friends”.

The incident allegedly took place on 13 December at Glenmore Park in western Sydney, after the man complained to his neighbours about water from their swimming pool leaking into his property.

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Sydney writers’ festival 2025: tallying authors’ views on Israel-Gaza ‘tokenistic and unfortunate’, organisers say

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After the shock resignation of the festival’s chair, the Sydney writers’ festival unveils its starry 2025 program in ‘an incredibly polarised environment’

Over the past two years, programming a writers’ festival has become one of the most politically fraught undertakings in the Australian cultural sphere. Both Sydney and Melbourne writers’ festivals have seen board members resign over programming decisions, while Adelaide and Perth have fended off calls for the de-platforming of speakers on both sides of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Literary events are traditionally lauded for their “restraint, reason and tolerance in the face of opposing views” – but writers’ festivals are now issuing safety tips and employing security as they navigate “the frontier between social media’s echo chambers of outrage and the traditional public square’s conventions”, the University of Melbourne journalism academic Denis Muller observed in the Conversation last year, after the resignation of the Melbourne writers’ festival’s deputy chair, Leslie Reti.

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Former bikie boss Sayed Moosawi directed ‘James Bond’ arson attacks in Bondi, court hears

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NSW police allege Moosawi directed two men who have pleaded guilty to setting the Curly Lewis brewery on fire in October 2024. He has denied all charges

A former bikie boss is among 14 people charged this week over a wave of alleged antisemitic attacks in Sydney that authorities claim were designed to distract police from organised crime or influence prosecutions.

On Tuesday, 32-year-old Sayed Moosawi, a former chapter president of the Nomad bikies, pleaded not guilty to three charges related to two alleged arson attacks on businesses in Bondi Beach in October.

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Anthony Albanese condemns ‘abhorrent’ threat made to Sydney mosque as NSW police investigate

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President of Australian Islamic House says he is ‘profoundly concerned by this threat’

Anthony Albanese has condemned a threat made against a mosque in south-west Sydney that referenced the Christchurch terror attack as “abhorrent”, as the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, confirmed police were conducting a “major investigation”.

NSW police on Tuesday evening confirmed they were investigating after the Australian Islamic House – Masjid Al-Bayt Al-Islami in Edmondson Park reported an online threat made against it on Instagram.

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Two boys including son of Blaxland candidate taken to hospital after alleged hit-and-run in western Sydney

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Ahmed Ouf, Cumberland councillor tilting at federal seat held by Jason Clare, shares thanks for ‘outpouring of community support’

Two school-age boys, one the son of a local councillor, were taken to hospital on Friday afternoon after an alleged hit-and-run incident in Auburn in western Sydney.

One of the children is the son of Ahmed Ouf, a Cumberland councillor and an independent candidate for the federal seat of Blaxland.

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Sydney nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in viral video charged

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Strike Force Pearl investigators arrested and charged Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, but no charges have been laid against her former colleague Ahmed Rashid Nadir

A public hospital nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in a viral video posted by an Israeli influencer has been charged with three offences.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, was charged with three offences including threatening violence, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

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Sydney commuters get four-month reprieve from rail industrial action after Fair Work ruling

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Rail union work stoppages to be suspended until 1 July as unions and state government try to strike pay deal

Sydney commuters have been granted a more than four-month reprieve from industrial action on the city’s train network, after the Fair Work Commission ordered rail union work stoppages be suspended until 1 July.

On Wednesday evening, the Fair Work Commission announced that while it would not grant the six-month suspension that the New South Wales government had requested, it would temporarily halt all industrial action to help unions and the government strike a pay deal.

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Man who made death threats against Brittany Higgins sentenced to at least 16 months in prison

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Higgins and partner David Sharaz were ‘terrified to leave the house alone’ because of online threats and abuse from David William Wonnocott

A judge has delivered a frank assessment of the man who threatened Brittany Higgins, her husband and her pet dog, saying he might just be an “awful person”.

In Sydney’s Downing Centre court on Wednesday, David William Wonnocott was sentenced to three years and two months’ jail. He must serve a minimum of 16 months.

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Six-year-old girl and woman die in Sydney house fire

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Four children and four adults escape blaze in Heckenberg, where police have established a crime scene

A woman and a schoolgirl have died in a house fire in Sydney’s south-west overnight.

Emergency services were called to the blaze at Heckenberg at 12.40am on Wednesday.

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Australia news live: embattled casino operator Star offered $650m lifeline; name of next cyclone changed from Anthony to avoid using PM’s name

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Hume rules out working with teals if Coalition wins 70-72 seats

Jane Hume was asked whether the Coalition was in a position to form any alliances with the crossbench, amid new polling from YouGov showing neither party looks to be coming out with a clear majority.

That would cause chaos, and would cause chaos politically and economically as well.

On average, the teals have voted with the Greens around 78% of the time, with Labor around 75% of the time, and with the Coalition around 18% of the time.

I think it’s really important to look at what people do rather than what people say. We’re planning on going to this election to win the election, because Australians deserve better than what they’ve had for the last three years.

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‘Work from home if you can’: Sydney commuters warned of more public transport chaos

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Train workers claim Fair Work Commission win as rail union warns of more potential delays and disruptions across network

Sydney commuters have been urged to work from home or check travel apps before leaving on Monday to avoid being caught up in potential public transport chaos amid rail unions’ ongoing standoff with the New South Wales government.

The warning comes as the Fair Work Commission on Sunday ruled high rates of sick leave by Sydney train drivers and guards on Friday did not constitute industrial action.

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Sydney’s archaic sewerage system a ‘significant’ source of microplastic pollution, CSIRO finds

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Malabar wastewater plant discharges 5.4bn to 120bn of microplastics each day, report says, prompting calls for more advanced treatment processes

It is not just human waste that is being pumped into the ocean off Sydney’s popular beaches due to the city’s unusual and archaic sewerage system – government scientists have confirmed billions of microplastics are also polluting the water.

A CSIRO report, released in 2020 but not reported on until now, found the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) at Malabar discharged an estimated 5.4bn to 120bn of microplastics into the ocean each day.

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