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Teens who use social media two hours daily at higher risk of depressive symptoms, study finds

Teenagers who spend hours glued to social media are likely to experience poorer mental health and a decline in wellbeing, a decade-long study shows, with young girls most at risk.

Labor and its trade union allies have shifted the focus of their rhetorical attacks, targeting Pauline Hanson as if she is the real opposition leader

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It was mid-January when Anthony Albanese publicly admitted his “worry” about the rise of One Nation.

The prime minister’s concern was not the political risk to himself or to Labor but rather the threat Pauline Hanson posed to the stability of Australia’s two-party system.

New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon is among witnesses expected to appear at the six-week trial in July next year

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Twenty-five people who were charged after they protested against the visit of the Israeli president will face a six-week joint trial in July next year.

The protesters had their matters heard before Downing centre local court on Thursday after their lawyers made a successful application for the joint hearing, arguing there were common legal issues across the cases.

Orijol Rukaj was on pallbearer duties when he evaded corrections staff – and has been on the run for the six weeks since

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Police say it was a busy funeral – with about 300 people gathering at a Melbourne cemetery on Anzac Day to farewell the brother of Orijol Rukaj.

Before assuming his duties as a pallbearer, Rukaj was escorted to the Keilor East service by corrections staff. But corrections staff didn’t bring him back to prison.

Blundy’s investment firm, BBRC International, owns about 13% of the US-listed lingerie brand, giving it a potential platform to launch a hostile takeover

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Australian billionaire Brett Blundy is waging a high-stakes campaign to oust the long-term chair of Victoria’s Secret & Co, setting the stage for a showdown at the company’s annual meeting in the US on Thursday.

Blundy’s investment firm, BBRC International, owns about 13% of the US-listed Victoria’s Secret lingerie brand, making it the second-biggest single shareholder and giving it a potential platform to launch a hostile takeover.

Director of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli celebrated for defining Australian culture and ‘global influence on craft, form and storytelling’

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Peter Weir, the director of Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli, was presented with the inaugural lifetime achievement award from the Australian Film Television and Radio School on Wednesday night.

At an event hosted by Sydney film festival, the AFTRS council chair, Rachel Perkins, called the now-retired 81-year-old director and screenwriter “the greatest film-maker this country has produced”.

Coalition also criticises swift timeline for proposed NDIS changes with Melissa McIntosh saying ‘we cannot forget that there are human lives at the other end’

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State and territory disability ministers have rung alarm bells over the Albanese government’s proposed overhaul of the NDIS, warning they can’t deliver “like-for-like services” for more than 200,000 participants expected to be shifted off the scheme by 2031.

The opposition, which strongly supports making the scheme more financially sustainable, has also criticised the swift timeline for proposed changes, with shadow NDIS minister, Melissa McIntosh, saying “we cannot forget that there are human lives at the other end”.

South Australian Liberal Tony Pasin says parties should ‘work hand-in-glove’ to defeat Labor at the next election

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Splits are appearing inside the Liberal party about how to deal with Pauline Hanson, after one opposition MP at risk of losing his seat to One Nation said the two conservative parties should cooperate and not run against each other – a plan rejected by Angus Taylor and other senior colleagues.

With One Nation leading the Coalition and Labor in published opinion polls, Hanson’s threat to target government-held seats has recharged debate about whether the surge will see rightwing politicians cooperate or cannibalise each other’s votes.

Former Labor foreign affairs minister says belief US would defend Australia in event of an existential attack is a ‘ludicrous delusion’

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Aukus will prove to be one of the worst defence and foreign policy decisions ever made by an Australian government and is only being permitted by Donald Trump in order to destroy Chinese nuclear threats to the US mainland, former foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans has said.

In evidence to an independent public inquiry into the $368bn nuclear agreement with the US and UK on Thursday, Evans, a cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, warned the transfer and construction of submarines to Australia from the early 2030s was effectively only an extension of the American military fleet.

NSW police say two men and a woman will face court on Thursday over alleged involvement in large-scale drug supply scheme

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Mohammed Skaf, a notorious gang rapist, has been arrested in Sydney and charged with nearly two dozen alleged drug offences.

New South Wales police said two men and a woman will face court on Thursday over their alleged involvement in a large-scale drug supply scheme after search warrants were executed in Sydney’s southwest overnight.

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Wong not ‘interested’ in One Nation’s fundraising

Wong says she isn’t concerned about One Nation’s fundraising efforts, but more about their policies. Pauline Hanson’s party says it has raised more than $1.5m in the last day, although those claims are unverified.

I’m less interested in what Pauline Hanson fundraises and am more concerned about One Nation’s policies. Just as I am concerned about the fact that the Liberal party and One Nation seem to be working together and that it appears to be very clearly that a vote for One Nation is actually a vote for the Liberal party, and a vote for the Liberal party is actually a vote for One Nation.

We’ve said for some time it’s obviously a fragile ceasefire, but we’ve also said that what Australia wants is a negotiated end to the war. That’s what we’re calling for, and that’s what we will continue to press for …

We’re not a central player in the Middle East, as we have said. What we can do is add our voice to others who are calling for a negotiated end to the conflict. It’s obviously one of the things we discuss today with the United Kingdom.

Exclusive: Financial returns, obtained by the Guardian, are ‘very poor and unprofessional’ and call into question party’s fitness to govern, expert says

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Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party reported more than $1m in missing and worthless assets in more than six years of filed financial records, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The financial returns lodged by One Nation with the Office of Fair Trading in Queensland covering 2016 to 2022 have been criticised by a leading expert in financial accounting as “sloppy and unprofessional”.

The vital medicine, made by AstraZeneca, will not be available from November, possibly leaving thousands of women without treatment

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Thousands of women could be left without vital breast cancer and endometriosis medicine when AstraZeneca removes its treatment from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the private market, experts warn.

Zoladex will no longer be available in Australia from November, as the ABC first reported, but some existing patients will still be able to access it for an additional six months.

But Australian government will expand offences covered by rules to include promotion of communal violence and attacks on defence system

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Labor has quietly backed down on moves to make spy agency Asio’s powers for compulsory questioning permanent, but will expand offences covered by the rules to include promotion of communal violence and attacks on Australia’s defence system.

The laws were introduced after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and give intelligence operatives powers to issue a questioning warrant requiring a person as young as 14 to give information or produce items that may assist in a serious investigation.

Human rights lawyers and refugee advocacy groups are lauding the decision as a ‘significant outcome’

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Millions of dollars in compensation could be paid out to more than 350 unlawful non-citizens held in indefinite detention after the high court ruled against the Australian government.

The ruling marks another blow for the Albanese government after its requirement that released members of the NZYQ cohort must wear ankle monitoring bracelets and abide by curfews was struck down as unconstitutional earlier this year.

State admits former Greens candidate entitled to damages and agrees to pay medical costs, but denies malicious prosecution and malfeasance in public office

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The state of New South Wales has admitted that a police officer punched Hannah Thomas in the eye while holding a torch at a pro-Palestine protest – and it has offered to pay her medical costs.

Court documents seen by Guardian Australia reveal the state has admitted to false imprisonment and battery in its defence to a civil action launched by the former Greens candidate in October.

Inspector of custodial services says inmates are sleeping on the floor and denied basic entitlements due to ‘a systemic failure across multiple prisons’

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Inmates in Western Australia are sleeping on mattresses on the floor of overcrowded cells and subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading” conditions, prompting the jails watchdog to call for urgent reform.

Most of WA’s correctional facilities are in crisis, with an increased level of harm observed across the system, the state’s inspector of custodial services, Eamon Ryan, said in a report tabled in parliament on Tuesday.

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Albanese says Australia still impacted by Middle East conflict ‘each and every day’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is now on the ABC News Breakfast couch. He said Australia remains concerned about the economic impact of the turmoil in the Middle East.

Our job now is to demonstrate that we are a genuine and credible alternative to this terrible Labor government.

He’s a great supporter of the party, he’s a great supporter of Angus Taylor, I think this is a great opportunity. The Liberal party has always been what John Howard called the broad church: we like having different opinions.

We listen to everybody’s views, and we represent them.

‘Gender norms explain some of it, but not all of it’ says Tiya Banerjee, an economist at the e61 Institute

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In about a week’s time, the Socceroos will step up against Turkey, their first opponents in this year’s World Cup.

Winning their first match will be a big ask; progressing beyond the first round will be a bigger one.

Federal environment department says Black Mountain Energy has provided insufficient data as it seeks to drill 20 gas wells in the Kimberley region

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The federal government has repeatedly raised concerns about an American company’s bid to frack for gas in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, part of the world’s largest and most intact tropical savanna.

Texas-based Black Mountain Energy, through its subsidiary Bennett Resources, is seeking federal approval to drill 20 gas wells for its Valhalla project west of Fitzroy Crossing.