Oceania Australia Two sailors have died in separate incidents on the first night of the 79th Sydney to Hobart sailing regatta, after they were both hit by sail booms; they mark the first deaths in the famed race since six men lost their lives in the 1998 event
Oceania Australia Off Shark Beach, a shark attacked a boy of about 13 who was swimming in Sydney Harbour, leaving him in critical condition with serious leg injuries
Oceania Australia While up to a dozen major bushfire ravaged towns, leaving one dead, 300 structures destroyed and 350.000 hectares burned in Victoria, Pro-Palestine protesters have defied police calls to cancel their Melbourne rally
Oceania Australia At least 15 people have been killed and 27 are in hospitals after a shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, the country’s worst in 30 years; attackers targeting Jewish Australians were “driven” by extreme ideology, but “weren’t part of a wider cell”
Oceania Australia Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School, the first Aboriginal bilingual school in New South Wales, is pioneering a model of success judged by happiness and is spearheading an Indigenous language revival