Exclusive: Anthony Albanese says arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after life of ‘absolute privilege’ will be watched closely in Australia

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Anthony Albanese has described Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest as an “extraordinary fall from grace” but says the latest crisis facing the British royal family won’t prompt another referendum on Australia becoming a republic.

The former prince, the brother of King Charles III, was arrested overnight on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Xiao Qian hits out at Labor’s policy to force the Chinese-owned company Landbridge to sell its 99-year lease on the port

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China’s ambassador to Australia says plans by the Albanese government to remove the Port of Darwin from Chinese ownership will put at risk future trade growth and force an intervention by Beijing.

Ambassador Xiao Qian hit out at Labor’s policy to force the Chinese-owned company Landbridge to sell its 99-year lease on the port, sparked by pre-election national security concerns from both Labor and the Coalition.

Career public servant and former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull to represent Australia’s interests with Trump administration from April, including progression of Aukus agreement

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The head of the department of defence, Greg Moriarty, will succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Moriarty’s appointment to the role on Sunday. A former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull and former Australian envoy to Iran and Indonesia, he has led the defence department since 2017. He will take up the posting in Washington from April.

The laws, in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, establish a national buyback, stop the importation of some firearms and tighten background checks

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Parliament has passed some of the most significant changes to Australia’s guns laws since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

Spurred by last month’s Bondi beach terror attack, the new laws will toughen background checks and fund a national gun buy-back scheme.

Almost a dozen emergency warnings remain in place across Victoria, with state premier saying ‘we are not through the worst of this by a long way’

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Australian authorities are assessing the damage after one of the worst heatwaves in years resulted in bushfires igniting across the country’s south-east, with one person dead, hundreds of homes and structures lost, thousands of hectares burned and entire towns evacuated.

A state of disaster remained in place across much of Victoria on Sunday as thousands of firefighters and emergency service workers continued to battle blazes that were expected to burn “for weeks”.

Australians of any faith or background urged to do a good deed ‘in memory and honour of those who no longer can’

When the New South Wales government asked Jewish faith leaders what they wanted after the explosion of hate that targeted their community and claimed 15 lives at Bondi beach, they requested positive action.

The idea Rabbi Nochum Schapiro presented to the emergency meeting of the NSW Faith Affairs Council convened by the minister for multiculturalism, Steve Kamper, was simple. It was for everyone to perform one mitzvah – an act of kindness.

Jewish leaders call for federal royal commission into Bondi beach attack that killed 15 people as huge crowd marks one week anniversary

• Victims of Bondi beach shooting

• Ten minutes of terror: how the Bondi mass shooting unfolded in real time – video

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Jewish leaders have called for a federal royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, as some members of the crowd booed Anthony Albanese on arrival at the commemoration marking one week since 15 people were killed on the first day of Hanukah.

The president of the NSW Board of Jewish Deputies, David Ossip, said it “cannot be disputed” that a federal royal commission was needed, to loud cheers and applause from the crowd of up to 15,000 people gathered at Bondi, where a minute’s silence was held at 6.47pm, the time the attack began.

From pop to politics, it’s been quite the year. Were you paying attention? Let’s find out …

1-5 Please pay more attention.
6-14 Very good. But spend less time looking up from your phone in 2026.
15-20 Please write this next year.

Restoring a feeling of safety for Australian Jews will take extraordinary effort. As well as stamping out antisemitism, the work should start with a national approach to managing guns

The shock and grief that already hung over Australia this week after the Bondi beach shootings has only been compounded by the funerals for the victims.

Members of Melbourne’s Jewish community gathered on Thursday to mourn Reuven Morrison. The 62-year-old met his wife, Leah, at Bondi after immigrating from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. He died there on Sunday night, having thrown a brick at one of the gunmen, trying to slow the deadly attack on joyful Hanukah celebrations. His unjust death betrays the reason Morrison chose to move across the world.

Israeli PM on Sunday accused Anthony Albanese of doing ‘nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism’

• Bondi terror attack: full report

• What we know so far about the attack

Australia’s prime minister has rejected accusations from his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state earlier this year had contributed to Sunday’s deadly antisemitic terrorist attack on Bondi beach in Sydney.

In an interview with national broadcasters, Anthony Albanese was asked if he accepted “any link between that recognition and the massacre in Bondi”.

Israeli prime minister claims the Australian government ‘let the disease’ of antisemitism spread ‘and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today’

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• Bondi beach terrorist attack: full report

• What we know about the Bondi beach attack

Leaders around the world expressed their horror at Sunday’s terrorist attack on Bondi beach, in which at least 16 people died, mixed in some cases with harsh words for the Australian government for alleged shortcomings in tackling antisemitism over the past two years.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had written to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, in August, warning that the government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire … emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets”. He claimed Albanese had “replaced weakness with weakness and appeasement with more appeasement”.

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 suit

On 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.

The PM becomes the first Australian leader to celebrate a wedding while in office with a private ceremony followed by a reception at his official residence, the Lodge

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The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has married his partner, Jodie Haydon, in Canberra, making him the first Australian leader to tie the knot in office.

The ceremony took place on Saturday afternoon at Albanese’s official residence, the Lodge, witnessed by a small group of close family and friends, including Albanese’s son, Nathan, and Haydon’s parents, Bill and Pauline.