| | 06/01/2025 PM hits the road in election blitz, Ukraine launches surprise offensive, drug resistance warning |
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| Paul Gallagher |  |
| | | Good morning. Welcome to the first Morning Mail for 2025 – thank you for reading, we love having you with us. Today we lead with news the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is embarking on a blitz of battleground seats as he tries to build momentum ahead of this year’s election, having ended 2024 with a series of lacklustre poll results. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces have launched a surprise new push into Russia’s Kursk region with footage showing troops on the offensive. And there’s renewed alarm over the rise of antimicrobial resistance around the world – amid warnings it could claim tens of millions of lives over the next 25 years. |
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| Australia | | New South Wales | An Invasion Day marcher knocked down and injured as police tried to arrest a man in 2017 has been stripped of $800,000 compensation after a duty of care ruling was overturned. | Election looms | Anthony Albanese will move to an election footing this week, travelling to key battlegrounds across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia – signalling the unofficial start of the 2025 election campaign. | Beach rescues | Victoria’s tourism agency has removed a social media post calling an unpatrolled beach on the Mornington Peninsula a “pristine swimming spot” after almost 150 rescues on the state’s beaches. | Sydney festival | Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera, co-written by director Constantine Costi and composer Luke Di Somma, is one of the centrepieces of this year’s Sydney festival. | Escaping the heat | Southern Ocean winds should bring relief on Monday to parts of Australia sweltering through a three-day heatwave, after a weekend of “particularly hot” conditions in South Australia, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. |
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 | Full Story | | Karima Hazim on how to cook for a crowd Whether we like it or not, some of us will have to host friends and family at home this holiday season. Karima Hazim, co-author of cookbook Sofra: Lebanese Recipes to Share, takes Reged Ahmad through her essential hacks for putting on a spread to impress – without all the stress. | |
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| | | | | | | | | The most important news from Australia and the globe, as it breaks |
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| | Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties |
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| In-depth | | Victorians have long been known as the biggest devotees of the Sunshine Coast resort town of Noosa. But in recent years the Queensland coastal paradise has been grappling with traffic snarls, a population boom and rising rents – so why are these interstate tourists still clamouring to visit? Joe Hincliffe looks at how even in the face of overtourism and a housing crunch, Noosa continues to keep its magic. |
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| Not the news | | In the latest of our Away with weekly interviews with prominent Australians about travel, the TV and radio presenter Zan Rowe reveals the pasta dish from a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Rome that took her to “heaven”, how she resets while on holiday, the destination that had her in tears every day, and a famed culinary region she’s keen to visit but hasn’t quite made it to – yet. |
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| Media roundup | Soaring caravan park rates at some of Victoria’s most popular holiday destinations are putting camping out of reach for families, reports the Age. The botched launch of a new health records system in NT emergency departments has put patients at risk, according to the NT News. The largest mass digitisation of a natural history collection in the southern hemisphere has been completed at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney after five painstaking years, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Australian researchers say social media is driving the “explosion” in popularity – and increased risks – of Antarctic tourism, reports ABC News. |
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| What’s happening today | Fiji | A man charged over the alleged sexual assault of a Virgin Australia crew member is scheduled to face court in Nadi. | NSW | The search for hiker Hadi Nazari, missing in a hazardous part of Kosciuszko national park, enters its twelfth day. | Queensland | A court appearance is scheduled in Maroochydore for a man charged over the sudden death of a Sunshine Coast woman. |
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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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| Contact us | If you have a story tip or technical issue viewing this newsletter, please reply to this email. If you are a Guardian supporter and need assistance with regards to contributions and/or digital subscriptions, please email customer.help@guardian.co.uk |
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A message from Lenore Taylor editor of Guardian AustraliaI hope you appreciated this newsletter. Before you move on, I wonder if you would consider contributing to our end-of-year fundraiser as we prepare for a pivotal, uncertain year ahead.
The course of world history has taken a sharp and disturbing turn in 2024. Liberalism is under threat from populist authoritarianism. Americans have voted to install a president with no respect for democratic norms, nor the facts that once formed the guardrails of public debate.
That decision means an alliance critical to Australia’s national and economic security is now a series of unpredictable transactions, with a partner no longer committed to multilateralism, nor efforts to curb global heating, the greatest threat we face. We just don’t know where this will lead.
In this uncertain time, fair, fact-based journalism is more important than ever – to record and understand events, to scrutinise the powerful, to give context, and to counter rampant misinformation and falsehoods.
As we enter an Australian election year, we are deeply conscious of the responsibility to accurately and impartially report on what is really at stake.
The Guardian is in a unique position to do this. We are not subject to the influence of a billionaire owner, nor do we exist to enrich shareholders. We are here to serve and listen to you, our readers, and we rely on your support to power our work.
Your support keeps us independent, beholden to no outside influence and accessible to everyone – whether they can afford to pay for news, or not.
If you can, please consider supporting us with just $1, or better yet, support us every month with a little more. Thank you. | | |
| Lenore Taylor
Editor, Guardian Australia |
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