AFP commissioner says MPs are generally concerned about growing volume of abuse and intimidation

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The head of the Australian federal police has condemned a “febrile” political environment that has seen one person charged every week over the alleged threatening of MPs, as Victoria announces new steps to protect politicians.

But the AFP and Victoria police insist they had no intelligence to suggest 43-year-old Brendan Nugent would go on to allegedly drive a Toyota LandCruiser into the independent MP Helen Haines in a targeted attack.

Anthony Albanese says his thoughts are with Indi MP after arrest of driver in Wangaratta

• Who is Helen Haines, the MP allegedly attacked in Victoria?

• What we know so far

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The independent MP Helen Haines has been critically injured in an alleged attack involving a vehicle outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, in regional Victoria.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed on Monday night that a man was in custody after the alleged attack on Haines that was now being investigated by the Australian federal police (AFP), Asio and the joint counter-terror taskforce.

All Australians should demand independent means to protect ourselves from Dr Sam Altman Frankenstein and Daddy America

Whoopsie! Dr Sam Altman Frankenstein regrets to inform you he’s lost control of his OpenAI monster.

It’s roving around doing things that provoke international legal investigation, and Australia has found out in the worst possible way.

Exclusive: Fake consultancy impersonating Brisbane firm online is one of 13 websites seized by the US Department of Justice

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When the first emails arrived, they were easily dismissed as spam. But as strangers continued to boast about their defence and security credentials, they became impossible to ignore.

From mid-2025, a small Australian consultancy firm called Horizzen started receiving emails and strange calls from people applying for vague jobs in the United States.

Kawsar Ahmad, 53, also known as Abbas, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, did not apply during brief hearing

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Two Australian women charged with slavery offences that allegedly occurred while they lived under Islamic State rule in Syria have faced a Melbourne court.

Kawsar Ahmad, 53, also known as Abbas, and her daughter, Zeinab Ahmad, 31, were arrested by officers from the Victorian joint counter-terrorism team at Melbourne airport on Thursday.

Janai Safar, 32, will remain in custody in Sydney. Two other women facing separate charges are expected to apply for bail in Melbourne on Monday

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An Australian woman charged with joining Islamic State in Syria has been refused bail despite concerns expressed by her lawyer over the loss of connection it would cause with one of her family members.

Janai Safar, 32, appeared before New South Wales bail court on Friday after she was arrested at Sydney airport on Thursday evening, after almost a decade in a Syrian refugee camp. She was one of four women allegedly linked to IS who returned to Australia with children this week.

Interim report contains 14 recommendations, after inquiry examined agencies’ actions before the attack in which 15 people were killed

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Sydney’s Jewish community told police of a “high” threat of an attack at December’s Chanukah by the Sea festival at Bondi beach, but New South Wales police appeared not to have completed a comprehensive risk assessment for the event, an interim royal commission report has found.

The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, established in the wake of December’s terror attack, found no gap in current laws that could have prevented the shooting. But it did call for greater coordination of policing at Jewish festivals and events.

Australia is dependent upon UK’s ability to deliver new submarines but report says ‘cracks are already beginning to show’

“Cracks are already beginning to show” in the UK’s funding for the Aukus agreement that could derail the ambitious nuclear submarine plan, a British parliamentary inquiry has found, highlighting a threat to Australia’s security.

UK shipbuilding has been under-funded for decades and the country’s submarine availability is “critically low”, the House of Commons defence committee’s report found.

Defence lawyer, former federal attorney general Christian Porter, says accused Jayson Joseph Michaels was ‘pretender full of big talk’

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A man accused of plotting a mass casualty terror attack targeting public buildings and places of worship believed his assault would be worse than the Bondi beach mass shootings, a court has heard.

Jayson Joseph Michaels detailed his alleged plan for a violent assault on Western Australia police headquarters, WA Parliament House and mosques in a diary, the Perth magistrates court was told during a failed bid for bail on Wednesday.

The Australian terrorist’s propaganda continues to surface in other offenders’ cases, and Muslim leaders say more needs to be done locally to confront Islamophobia

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When he was 14, a boy in South Australia downloaded more than a dozen videos of the terrorist attack committed by an Australian man on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019.

He was sentenced in 2025 for possessing documents with information for terrorist acts and extremist material, according to the magistrate’s remarks, which included having the shooter’s manifesto on his devices.

A spokesperson for Falun Dafa – a group associated with Shen Yun - said it had received threats against Albanese if upcoming performances went ahead

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Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his official Canberra residence on Tuesday night as police responded to a bomb threat made against him in relation to upcoming performances of the Chinese group Shen Yun.

A spokesperson for Falun Dafa – a group associated with Shen Yun - told Guardian Australia that one of their colleagues had received two threats in recent weeks, written in Chinese, threatening harm against Albanese if the performances went ahead. The threats, the second of which was received this week, were reported to the Australian Federal Police and are thought to have been the reason for the prime minister to be evacuated from the Lodge and the house to be searched by officers.

Dfat aware of Australians among 5,704 detainees transferred out of Syrian prisons and into Iraqi custody

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A group of Australian men suspected of being former Islamic State fighters are among more than 5,000 detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq, where they potentially face charges which could carry the death penalty.

Iraq’s national centre for international judicial cooperation confirmed last Friday it had taken custody of the 5,704 alleged former fighters from 61 countries, including citizens of Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

Sammy Yahood accuses Labor of ‘tyranny’ after the government cancelled his visa hours before his flight was due to depart

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The government has cancelled the visa of a Jewish influencer who has previously called for the ban of Islam and was booked to speak at several events in Australia.

The right-leaning Australian Jewish Association (AJA) said Sammy Yahood’s visa was cancelled three hours before his flight was due to depart.

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”.