Good morning. We report today on a curious case linking a fake website impersonating a Brisbane consultancy firm with what the FBI claims is a campaign to recruit Chinese spies.
Meanwhile, we speak with the outgoing ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, whose tenure in the top job spanned the Turnbull, Morrison and Albanese governments – and helped to reshape Australia’s industrial landscape.
Sam Pang and Sam Neill were among the top winners at last night’s Logie awards. And, three decades on, we look back at the Pokémania that descended on Australia’s schoolyards.
Australia
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‘It never stops’ | After securing wage rises for low-paid workers, weathering death threats and working with three PMs, Sally McManus, the outgoing ACTU secretary, is ready for a break.
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Militaria concerns | Nazi artefacts are being openly sold in Australia three years after it was made it illegal to do so, with vendors saying they are doing so for “educational” reasons.
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Vaccine scepticism | Australian medical experts are warning that a shift in child vaccination advice in the US is not grounded in science and could undo decades of public health advances.
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Logie awards | Sam Neill has won a posthumous best actor award at Australia’s biggest television awards – with comedian Sam Pang taking home the night’s top honour, the Gold Logie award.
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Deepfake alarm | There are warnings over a steep rise in scammers luring victims into phoney investments using deepfakes of celebrities and politicians – including images of Anthony Albanese.
World
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Russia-Ukraine war | Ukraine has launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, causing a fire at a distribution warehouse near Moscow and killing at least six people.
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Indonesia quake | Rescue crews dug through collapsed buildings and landslide debris in eastern Indonesia in search of bodies and possible survivors after an earthquake killed more than 50 people.
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Europe wildfires | Two people have died in fires on the Greek island of Salamis, and firefighting aircraft have been called on to help tame the biggest blaze in Belgium in more than a century.
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Jason Arday death | The University of Cambridge has defended its mental health support for the academic Jason Arday after he resigned from his post amid accusations of plagiarism.
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Brazen art heist | Four of the most important works of art by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in the Sicilian port city of Messina.
Full Story
The messy politics of a housing crisis
From immigration to inflation, housing sits at the heart of most political debates. But political parties are struggling to come up with a coherent message – and no one has a clear plan to fix the crisis. Reged Ahmad speaks with economist Saul Eslake on what really works – and why politicians can’t seem to fix one of the biggest problems facing us all.
In-depth
From mid-2025, a Brisbane firm called Horizzen started receiving emails and strange calls from people applying for vague jobs in the US. Without its knowledge, a fake consultancy firm was impersonating them online. And so began a twisting tale that saw the FBI get involved as part of investigations into alleged Chinese espionage.
Not the news
Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Pokémon crash-landed in Australia in the late 1990s and soon led to a schoolyard phenomenon. Lost in the media controversy, moral panic and school-wide bans of its early days was a misunderstanding of its genius: to “catch ’em all”, you had to befriend and trust your fellow players. And, as Patrick Marlborough explains, Pokémon not only encouraged community, it required it.
Sport
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AFL | Two very different AFL draws show why stalemates still have a place in the game, Jonathan Horn writes.
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Cricket | Australia was left humiliated as Bangladesh made history with a crushing Test victory in Darwin.
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Football | Riccardo Calafiori’s fast start inspired Arsenal to a big Community Shield win over Manchester City; it’s an early warning to title rivals, Ed Aarons writes. And: Cristiano Ronaldo says this year is “probably” his last as a footballer.
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Swimming | Australia’s Lani Pallister toppled 800m freestyle queen Katie Ledecky at the Pan Pacific Championships.
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Tennis | Novak Djokovic’s medical malaise in Cincinnati exposed fraying edges of the ageing great’s game, Tumaini Carayol writes.
Media roundup
Victorian wildlife officers have begun the race to vaccinate Phillip Island’s famous little penguin colony from H5 bird flu, ABC News reports. Students at a prestigious Melbourne high school will be forced to shift into portables amid “extreme” safety concerns, the Age reports. At least 111 individuals and providers have been issued banning orders in Labor’s NDIS fraud crackdown, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
What’s happening today
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ACT | Federal parliament is sitting this week in Canberra.
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NSW | The trial of veteran broadcaster Alan Jones continues in Sydney.
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NSW | Public hearings in the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion continue in Sydney.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
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