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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.

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© Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

© Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

© Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Labor MPs have been handed new talking points – revealing a growing concern about One Nation

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

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.

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© Photograph: AAP

© Photograph: AAP

© Photograph: AAP

Twenty-five anti-Isaac Herzog protesters to face joint trial in Sydney

11 June 2026 at 09:16

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

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.

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© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Escaped prisoner who fled brother’s funeral believed to be in Melbourne, police say

11 June 2026 at 05:20

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

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.

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© Photograph: supplied by Victoria Police

© Photograph: supplied by Victoria Police

© Photograph: supplied by Victoria Police

Australian billionaire Brett Blundy wages high-stakes campaign to oust chair of Victoria’s Secret

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

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.

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© Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret

© Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret

© Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret

Peter Weir receives inaugural AFTRS lifetime achievement award

11 June 2026 at 03:44

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

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”.

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© Photograph: Tim Levy

© Photograph: Tim Levy

© Photograph: Tim Levy

We can’t deliver ‘like-for-like-services’ for people kicked off the NDIS, states warn Albanese government

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’

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”.

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© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Angus Taylor rejects One Nation seat sharing deal as cracks appear in Liberal ranks over Pauline Hanson threat

11 June 2026 at 02:14

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

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.

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© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

© Photograph: Jay Kogler/AAP

Aukus is among Australia’s worst foreign policy decisions and requires ‘heroic’ optimism, Gareth Evans says

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

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.

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© Photograph: Australian Defence Force/Getty Images

© Photograph: Australian Defence Force/Getty Images

© Photograph: Australian Defence Force/Getty Images

Convicted gang rapist Mohammed Skaf hit with two dozen drug charges in Sydney

10 June 2026 at 23:46

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

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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© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

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