33 m. ago Australia have been blessed by England’s disarray but can still put their stamp on Ashes triumph

Victory in the fifth Test would help hosts send off Usman Khawaja in style in Sydney and ensure England cannot recast series as one that got awayIf you had told Australian observers six months ago that their Test team in Sydney would involve Travis Head opening the batting with Jake Weatherald, Usman Khawaja at five, no Cameron Green, and some bowling combination of Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Todd Murphy and Brendan Doggett, they would have assumed disaster. Fifth Ashes Tests are the land of Scott Borthwick, of Boyd Rankin and Mason Crane: fringe players getting a glimpse at the wreckage after a series has crashed and burned.Khawaja was one such, in the debut reflected upon so much this week after his retirement announcement: the game when he replaced an injured Ricky Ponting after two Australian defeats by an innings, only to play in a third. Continue reading...

Politics

21 h. ago Islamophobia has surged since the Bondi attack. Australia’s Muslim community should not have to endure this abuse | Aftab Malik

No Muslim leader wants to diminish the suffering of the Jewish community or be seen as engaging in competitive victimhood. We must stand in solidarity with each otherWhile many Australians remain in a state of anger, grief and reflection due to the devastating Bondi terror attack, Muslim community leaders are in a predicament. What is to be done about the ensuing rise of anti-Muslim sentiment, hatred and racism that their communities face?Following the 14 December mass shooting, community registers that document Islamophobia have largely been reluctant to speak publicly about the spike in Islamophobia, out of concern of being perceived to trivialise the killing of Jewish Australians, their suffering, or vying for sympathy from the public. Continue reading...

Events

26 h. ago Usman Khawaja’s retirement farewell shows how cricket can be an expression of character | Gideon Haigh

Touching on his relationship with God, his family and racism, the Australian articulates how he became a better cricketer as he became a better manThere is no gainsaying Usman Khawaja’s significance as an Australian Test cricketer; an additional mark of his stature is that he almost made you take him for granted.Think on it for a moment, and run your eye up and down the palely conventional list of Australia’s highest Test scorers, where he ranks 15th, between Mike Hussey and Neil Harvey – so various in methods yet so similar in origins. There was a recognition through the 1990s and into the 21st century that the face of Australia was being changed by immigration, while the face of Australian cricket remained eerily unaltered. Then, all of a sudden, 15 years ago, Khawaja’s darkly slim figure emerged from the shadows of the Sydney Cricket Ground to pull his first Test delivery for four, and the axis of the game tilted ever so slightly. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Cameron Green remains Australia’s golden child but the blessing has become a curse | | Brendan Foster

Allrounder has shown enough glimpses to suggest he is the complete package but has again failed to impose himself on a series during the AshesBazball might be dead, or at least on its last legs, but before its demise it appears to have bewitched cricketing prodigy Cameron Green with its high-risk, at times mindless aggression.Some of the young allrounder’s premeditated shots during the Ashes have made England wunderkind Harry Brook look like their unpretentious former opener, Geoff Boycott. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Car bombing prompts police evacuation of rabbi and young family

A rabbi and his young family were evacuated from their home in the early hours of Christmas morning after a firebomb attack, as the world and Australia remain on edge following the Bondi Beach terror shootings.

Events

9 d. ago Australia mull over spin question as Todd Murphy enters mix with plenty to play for

Off-spinner not guaranteed spot in XI but may have key role against a side that will try to clear the boundaryIt would really be something. A Victorian spin bowler – one from St Kilda Cricket Club, no less – walking out on Boxing Day to play an Ashes Test in the shadow of the Shane Warne Stand at the MCG. Todd Murphy is not much like Warne in most respects: quiet, modest, thoughtful, bespectacled, a student of the even tempered practice of off-spin bowling rather than the lavish excess of leg-spin. But still. The links that do exist are too appealing to ignore.Not that Murphy is guaranteed to play the fourth Test in place of the injured Nathan Lyon, with Australia’s coach, Andrew McDonald, prevaricating about whether to pick four frontline fast bowlers plus an all-round seamer in Cameron Green or Beau Webster. But in picking him as the lone option in the squad, Australia have already given their spinner more positive feedback than Shoaib Bashir has received from England, who have re...

Politics

1 week ago Australia’s gun laws have long been the envy of the world. They must remain so, especially after Bondi | Gideon Meyerowitz

As a public health expert and Jewish Australian, I urge our leaders to ensure gun legislation matches the world we live inGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAfter the awful attack at Bondi, Australia is facing several reckonings. There’s a long-overdue national focus on antisemitism, something that the Jewish community has been worried about as long as I have been alive. There’s the ongoing concern about national security, and questions about how something like this could have happened. But to me, as a public health expert and Jewish Australian, perhaps the most important conversation we are finally having is the one about guns.Public health experts have been warning about guns for at least a decade. In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, Australians came together and implemented a suite of measures to curb gun violence across the country. And it worked. Prior to 1996, we saw about one mass shooting a year. In the decades since, we have seen vanishingly few...

Politics

1 week ago Dominant Australia defeat England in third Test to retain Ashes – live reaction

Australia win by 82 runs as England fall short of record run chase in Adelaide Ashes top 100 | Get the Spin newsletter | Email James66th over: England 214-6 (Smith 9, Jacks 11) Smith pushes a single off Lyon. It’s the only run off the over. Oohs and ahhs from the Aussie fielders, I wouldn’t say Marnus is quiet exactly.65th over: England 213-6 (Smith 8, Jacks 11) Smith drives Cameron Green for three more but it was uppish and not too far away from the bowler’s gargantuan wing span in his follow through. Jacks then nearly nicks off with a loosey goosey drive. Gah. To channel Ray Winstone in The Departed – I’m here to tell you there are ways to get out and ways to not get out, getting out caught and bowled to a loose drive is not a way to get out. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago England lose Jamie Smith as Australia close in on Ashes victory

At lunch England were 309 for seven, with Will Jacks 38 not out from 120 balls and Brydon Carse in support.

Politics

2 w. ago England batting collapse leaves Ashes hanging by a thread in Adelaide

After defeats in Perth and Brisbane, England moved closer to an irretrievable 3-0 deficit as the top-order wilted in all too familiar fashion.

Politics

2 w. ago Ashes star Cameron Green becomes most expensive overseas player ever at IPL 2026 auction

The IPL will run from late March to late May in 2026

Sport

2 w. ago Ashes star becomes most expensive overseas player ever at IPL auction

The IPL will run from late March to late May in 2026

Sport

2 w. ago Child attending exhibition accidentally knocks over and destroys a PRICELESS golden wedding crown in China

The footage shows a young boy repeatedly holding onto the display cabinet and touching it with his hands. The crown and its protective cover then fall together onto the ground.

Society

2 w. ago Bondi Beach shooting UPDATES: Brit Rabbi and girl, 10, among 16 dead in attack

Sixteen people, including one gunman, are dead and 40 others remain in hospital with injuries following a mass shooting on Australia's Bondi Beach

Events

3 w. ago ‘A crisis involving Salah is a crisis for the nation’: Egypt backs ‘golden child’

The view from his homeland is that Salah’s character and past form should allow for his outburst, while Jamie Carragher has been scalded for his hot takesMohamed Salah’s stature in Egypt means his every move dominates public discourse. It was therefore entirely predictable that the forward’s comments after Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at Leeds – where he was relegated to the bench for a third consecutive game – he would become the singular, all-consuming topic across his homeland’s sports media.“Egyptian media was always going to stand by Salah,” says the Egyptian journalist and co-founder of the sports website KingFut, Adam Moustafa. “When you look at the content over the last five years or so of Egyptian football, 60-70% has been based around him. He’s a unique status that we’ve never had, for someone abroad to be so successful. He’s the golden child of Egypt.” Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Australia’s social media ban launched with barely a hitch – but the real test is still to come

The policy to cut off social media access for more than 2 million under-16s remains popular with Australians, while other countries look to follow suitOn the lawns of the prime minister’s Kirribilli residence in Sydney, overlooking the harbour, Anthony Albanese said he had never been prouder.“This is a day in which my pride to be prime minister of Australia has never been greater. This is world-leading. This is Australia showing enough is enough,” he said as the country’s under-16s social media ban came into effect on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Aussie man arrested alongside Bonnie Blue in Bali is identified

Julian Woods, who describes himself as 'Australia's number one biological male' in his Instagram bio, remains on the Indonesian island as officials investigate their activities.

Events

3 w. ago Standing up for Alex Carey, undoubtedly the finest wicketkeeper in world cricket right now | Brendan Foster

The Australian gloveman redefined the craft of keeping with a game-changing masterclass in the second Ashes TestJust after lunch on the fourth day of the Centenary Test at the MCG in 1977, the classroom speaker at my Perth primary school crackled into life with the muffled voices of the ABC radio.Our teacher demanded we stop what we were doing because history was about to be made. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth, who was in Australia on her Silver Jubilee tour of the Commonwealth, was about to address her colonial subjects with a momentous announcement? Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago England feel sting of familiar Ashes pain on day of missed chances in Brisbane

Ben Stokes’ side dropped five catches as Australia blazed into a lead of 44 with four wickets remaining

Politics

4 w. ago England toil despite Will Jacks’ moment of magic in second Ashes Test

Jacks took a stunning catch to dismiss Steve Smith but England dropped a host of other chances as Australia pulled ahead in Brisbane.

Politics