A focused view of neutral reporting on Australia, brought together across publishers.
Explore all topics →
A new coronavirus variant Omicron first identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021, has been named “a coronavirus variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since its discovery, it has been spreading around the world, including to locations in Asia, Europe and Australia. The new strain, also kn…
Millions of flame red crabs flooded Western Australia’s Christmas Island at the start of their annual migration. As the crabs left their homes to make their way to the ocean to breed, roads on the island were closed to ensure a safe journey. A crab bridge was specially built to help the creatures cross safely on wid…
Dozens of protests took place around the world on November 6, 2021, to demand more action from delegates attending the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. As the international summit headed into its second week, tens of thousands of protesters marched in the city in Scotland, joining groups who turned out…
A four-year-old Australian girl has been found alive and well 18 days after she was abducted from a remote campsite. Police in Western Australia said Cleo Smith was discovered on November 3, 2021, alone in a locked house in the coastal town of Carnarvon, about an hour’s drive from where she was taken on October 16. …
The USS Connecticut, a Seawolf-class American submarine, collided with an underwater object in the South China Sea on October 2, 2021, while conducting routine operations. Officials say there were no life-threatening injuries and that the submarine was able to return to a US naval base in Guam under its own power. H…
A note to all drone pilots out there: don’t fly too close to crocodiles. Camera operator Dane Hirst was flying his drone at Crocodylus Park in Australia filming the reptiles. Just as Hirst lined up his shot one of the crocodiles leapt out and snapped the low-flying drone. The device was found two weeks later by park…
No media source currently available
No media source currently available
No media source currently available
The Australian city of Melbourne continued to be racked by protests on September 22, 2021. For the third straight day, demonstrators marched in the capital of the southeastern state of Victoria to oppose Covid-19 lockdowns and mandatory vaccine rules in the construction industry. Riot police and mounted units later …
Colourful lanterns are lighting up Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The displays, which include a six-metre (20ft) high merry-go-round lantern and animal installations, will illuminate nightly from 6.30-11pm until September 22, 2021. Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth month in th…
No media source currently available
No media source currently available
Thousands of protesters marched on the streets of major Australian cities over strict lockdown rules on August 21, 2021. In Melbourne, police used pepper spray to break up what they described as a “violent and unlawful protest”, with more than 200 people arrested. Lockdown has been extended across the country to con…
The Australian government gave provisional approval for the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine on August 9, 2021, with the first million doses expected to arrive in September. With only 22 per cent of its population fully vaccinated, Australia’s vaccination rate is currently ranked one of the lowest among Organisatio…
Australia and the US have swept up in the pool on the final day of swimming in Tokyo, with China missing out on a podium finish. Medal hopes for the Hong Kong fencing team are over with the men’s foil losing to Russia in the quarter-finals. Cheung Ka-long had already won gold in the individual foil, but he couldn't …
Siobhan Haughey has made history by securing Hong Kong’s first-ever Olympic medal in swimming. The 23-year-old won silver in the women’s 200m freestyle final on Day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Games, beaten only by Australian superstar swimmer Ariarne Titmus. It comes just days after fencer Cheung Ka-long won the gold in th…
Hong Kong athlete Siobhan Haughey made history on July 28, 2021, with her silver medal win in the women’s 200m freestyle swimming final at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The 23-year-old, the daughter of a Hong Kong mother and Irish father, was the first swimmer from the city to compete in an Olympic final. Though she was …
Officials in “zero-Covid” economies such as Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand have resisted being drawn on specifics about when their communities can return to pre-pandemic life. But Roberto Bruzzone, co-director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, warns that eliminating Covid-19 is an unrealistic goal. The infecti…
No media source currently available
Hundreds of Hongkongers are believed to have fled the city to avoid prosecution for their roles in months of anti-government protests. Two years after the unrest started in 2019, many are seeking asylum in Western countries, including Australia, Britain and the United States. Among the activists now in the US is a 2…
At a concession stand at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Adelaide Avila was pingponging between pouring beers, wiping down counters and taking out the trash. Her Los Angeles Lakers were playing their hometown rival, the Clippers, but Avila was working too hard to follow the March 2019 game.
Though annual July 1 rallies were banned by police, citing pandemic restrictions, a flag-raising ceremony went ahead in the morning of July 1, 2021, to mark the 24th anniversary of former colony Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. Police said they will deploy about 10,000 officers across the city, have made c…
China and Australia seem to have something of a love-hate relationship. On one hand, three-quarters of Australians say they distrust the Chinese government. But on the other hand, almost as many think Australia should continue to make itself an attractive destination for Chinese tourists.
The highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant is exposing the vulnerability of economies with low vaccination rates, such as Australia and Hong Kong. Catherine Bennett, public health expert and epidemiologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, explains how infectious the variant is and how it could f…
Canada’s ambassador to the UN Leslie Norton read out a joint statement on June 22, 2021, calling on China to give the United Nation access to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The statement was delivered to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of more than 40 countries including Australia, Britain, France, Germ…
The Gippsland region in Victoria, Australia, is covered in spider webs. Recent flooding forced millions of spiders to seek higher ground on road signs and trees. The phenomenon happens semi-regularly in Victoria during the rainy season.
No media source currently available
Since arriving in Hong Kong in 1985, John Wotherspoon has spent his time helping the city’s disadvantaged. The Australian priest was first posted to a Kowloon parish and on Lantau Island before spending a period of time teaching English in mainland China. In 2009, Wotherspoon moved to a subdivided flat in Yau Ma Tei…
Australian scientists have announced the discovery of one of the largest dinosaur species ever, formally named Australotitan cooperensis. Paleontologists believe that the new species was as long as a basketball court and as tall as a two-storey building. The bones were first uncovered more than a decade ago, althoug…
Hong Kong police shut down Victoria Park on June 4, 2021, to stop people from gathering for a banned candlelight vigil commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Officers also set up roadblocks at major thoroughfares to check vehicles. For the second year in a row, police objected to the m…
Japan first suggested an alliance with the US, India and Australia – now known as the “Quad” – as a defence strategy against China, former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said in a panel discussion on June 2, 2021. In the virtual meeting with other former top Trump administration officials, Pottinger…
Organisers of Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigil have shut down their June 4 museum commemorating the 1989 crackdown, a day after the government launched an investigation into a licensing complaint. Earlier, police banned the annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park for the second year in a row, citing social-dista…
A severe mice infestation that has been plaguing eastern Australia for months continues to wreak havoc, with millions of rodents swarming farms and homes in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The mice crisis has left entire towns engulfed in pungent odours and farms reeling from crop losses with rodents d…
Troops from Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, the US Marines and the French Army conducted joint drills at training grounds in Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture on May 15, 2021 - a first for France in the region. The joint exercises, which also included Australia’s navy, comes at a time when Washington and Tokyo are ramping up…
Imprisoned Hong Kong opposition activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung has been sentenced to an additional 10 months in jail. The sentence was handed down on May 6, 2021, after he and three others pleaded guilty a week earlier to taking part in an unauthorised vigil in Hong Kong on June 4, 2020. District councillors Lester S…
China’s top economic planner said on May 6, 2021, said Beijing had “indefinitely suspended” high-level economic dialogue with Australia. The announcement was made following Australia’s move last month to revoke participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative by the state of Victoria, after deeming its agreements w…
Myanmar swimmer Win Htet Oo has gone public with his intentions to forgo qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in what he describes as a form of protest against the "military dictatorship" in his homeland. The athlete now based in Australia had previously written to the International Olympic Committee asking to compete …
Trade is only one aspect of the current dispute between China and Australia, according to Bryan Mercurio, a professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who is a specialist in international economic law. Mercurio, who has legal expertise related to the World Trade Organization (WTO), tells the SCMP's poli…
Karen Wong set up an online business, which started in the US and Australia, providing a luxury pop-up picnic service. Spotting a new business opportunity during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wong brought the idea back to Hong Kong from Perth in October 2020. The business the 25-year-old launched with two partners offers a…
Hong Kong’s iconic clock tower in Tsim Sha Tsui celebrates its centenary in March 2021. The 44-metre-tall (144ft) tower was built in 1915 as part of the now-demolished Kowloon-Canton Railway station. Despite sustaining some battle damage, the building survived the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during World War II. …
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was “shocked” and “disgusted”, at a press conference on March 23, 2021, after videos were leaked of staff from Australia’s conservative government performing sex acts in parliament. The footage included one man masturbating over a female MP’s desk. The whistle-blower …
A 16-metre long blue whale was devoured alive by 75 hungry orcas off the west coast of Australia. The three-hour wildlife battle was captured on March 16, 2021, when 40 people went on a whale-watching tour.
Thousands of people, including a soon-to-wed couple, have fled their homes in what’s been described as once-in-a-century flooding in Australia. Authorities plan to evacuate thousands more from flood-affected areas on March 22, 2021. The country’s east coast in the state of New South Wales has seen unrelenting rains …
Thousands of people marched across Australia on March 15, 2021, to protest against sexual violence, harassment and gender inequality. The #March4Justice rallies had been sparked by recent allegations of sexual assault, discrimination and misconduct in some of Australia’s highest political offices.
