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Aussie athletes enter stadium as Olympic curtain finally lifts
Patty Mills and Cate Campbell have carried the Australian flag into the Olympic Stadium as the Games of the XXXII Olympiad finally get under way in Japan.
Updated
Olympics
The Defiant Games: The Tokyo Olympics begins at last
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said the Japanese public would have to sacrifice their freedoms for the good of the athletes.
Updated
Crown royal commission
The Star withdraws $12b bid for merger bid with rival Crown
The Star has withdrawn a $12 billion merger proposal with rival Crown Resorts as the James Packer-controlled firm faces uncertain future.
Exclusive
Casinos
Crown’s secret consultancy deal with ALP powerbroker
James Packer’s troubled casino group has secretly engaged the Victorian Labor powerbroker as a consultant as it tries to hang on to its Victorian casino licence.
Buyer beware: home building dreams shattered as Perth families gagged
West Australians who are unhappy with their home builder say they are being bullied into staying silent as they struggle to get out of their contract.
McGowan says no to sending jabs east while blasting NSW’s ‘half-baked’ attempt at lockdown
When asked whether he would consider offering some of WA’s share of Pfizer doses to NSW, Mr McGowan shared the same view of his Victorian counterpart Daniel Andrews that the government would not be sending any jabs.
Analysis
Coronavirus pandemic
Federation fractures once more over coronavirus outbreak
After Gladys Berejiklian blindsided Canberra and Daniel Andrews launched metaphorical grenades, the PM did his best to put out spot fires on a “messy” day in politics.
Pfizer more effective with 8 to 10 week gap: Oxford study
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advocated a shift in New South Wale’s vaccination strategy to delay second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 jab.
Updated
AFL 2021
Andrews not ready to concede defeat on MCG grand final
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan expects to have a “sensible discussion” with the Victorian government if the MCG is unable to host the game with crowds in 2021.
Port Adelaide power past Magpies in Boak’s 300th as Pendlebury injured
Port Adelaide celebrated club legend Travis Boak’s landmark 300th match in style after overcoming a valiant challenge from Collingwood to win by 28 points at Marvel Stadium.
‘Real difficulties’ in moving Roberts-Smith defamation trial interstate from NSW
The war veteran’s barrister has suggested the trial might be moved to Adelaide or Canberra to avoid a NSW’s worsening COVID outbreak.
Eric Clapton refuses to play at venues requiring proof of vaccination
The musician said he would “not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present”.
‘A classic Australian character’: John ‘Strop’ Cornell dies at 80
The man behind comedian Paul Hogan’s success and a key figure in Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket has died following a 20-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Collar bomb hoaxer offers ‘deep apology’ to victim during parole hearing
Paul Douglas Peters entered a Sydney home in 2011 and strapped a fake bomb to the neck of a 17-year-old girl in an extortion attempt that left her terrified.
‘Simply mind-blowing’: blind surfer’s wave of glory
This champion sportsman, once angry with the world and himself, is chasing one of surfing’s toughest moves: to ride inside – and exit from – a brutish barrel.
‘Liberal lunacy’: Shark bite debate stirs up US media
A discussion about whether to describe them as “attacks” or “encounters” has stirred both jokes and dismissal that the issue was the latest “liberal lunacy”.
Editor's Picks
Opinion
Scott Morrison
PM has dealt with the ‘sorry’ question. It might be harder to put ATAGI questions to rest
Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Just in
Western Australia
Aboriginal elder takes fight against WA heritage laws to United Nations
Ngalia elder Kado Muir told the UN Rio Tinto’s destruction of Juukan Gorge in May last year highlighted the failures of current laws to protect sites where industry has an interest.
BHP’s WA nickel plant to power Tesla electric vehicles
Mining giant BHP has struck a deal to supply nickel to Elon Musk’s Tesla from its Nickel West mining, smelting and refining operations in Western Australia.
Why WA is missing its chance to stop Perth’s urban sprawl
Perth’s biggest problem is its lack of infill of existing land, targets the government counteracted through its own policies, an independent infrastructure advisory body says.
Updated
Coronavirus pandemic
McGowan open to Perth hosting AFL hub, grand final at Optus Stadium
With the rest of Australian in various states of lockdown, Optus Stadium is likely to be the last venue standing when a decision is required on where the 2021 AFL grand final will be held.
Thirteen-year-old girl charged with assault, robbery after midnight Northbridge attack
Police allege a 31-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman were walking along William Street when they were attacked by the girl and an 18-year-old accomplice.
Politics
Risks and benefits of AstraZeneca in ‘state of flux’ for Sydneysiders
Experts say young people in Sydney must actively balance the risk of getting COVID-19 against the possible rare side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Business
Telstra’s Pacific adventure: a radical pivot or a deal to good to refuse?
Telstra’s offer for a telecom operator in the South Pacific has caught the attention of political and national security figures, not just its investors.
World
The Taliban conquest of a thin strip of land could change Afghanistan
When a small group of armed insurgents in cars arrived in a village in the Wakhan Corridor, it put a sharp focus on Beijing’s role in Afghanistan.
Opinion
PM has dealt with the ‘sorry’ question. It might be harder to put the ATAGI questions to rest
Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Living la vida lockdown: how Australians are adapting to the isolation economy - and spending up
Andrew Charlton
Economic adviser to former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd
Explore
Property bydomain
With just the bare essentials, this two-room weekender is jaw-dropping
"You just need to bring clothes. You don’t need to replicate the permanence of a home with a lot of stuff," says the architect.
The unexpected group of buyers driving up house prices
The market is currently being dominated by those upgrading to bigger, better or more beautifully located homes. But why are they doing it?
Life & Culture
Exclusive
Beer
Meet Australia’s best home brewers – and their award-winning beers
Hipsters, hop lovers and home bodies all flocked to home brewing as a pastime amid the pandemic, prompting Fremantle’s Little Creatures to find the country’s best backyard brewers.
Opinion
WordPlay
Are you bi-Pfi or bi-Az? How to join the vax populi
David Astle
Crossword compiler and ABC Radio Melbourne presenter
Sport
Updated
Coronavirus pandemic
Perth firms for AFL finals hub, Grand Final at Optus Stadium
With the rest of Australian in various states of lockdown, Optus Stadium is likely to be the last venue standing when a decision is required on where the 2021 AFL Grand Final will be held.
Updated
Coronavirus pandemic
West Indies, Bangladesh tours in doubt after positive COVID test
The second one-dayer against the West Indies was postponed minutes before it was due to start placing Australia’s tours of the Caribbean and Bangladesh in fresh doubt.
Opinion
AFL 2021
The case for AFL players rolling up their sleeves for vaccination
It’s too late for this season, perhaps, but the AFL and its players should be rolling up their sleeves as soon as possible.
Jake Niall
Chief football writer, The Age
Analysis
Tokyo Olympics
Coates reminds Queensland Premier who is in charge
Among his extraordinary talents for navigating the born-to-rule bureaucracy of the IOC and bending the will of state and federal governments to his ends, John Coates has an Olympic-sized capacity for humiliation.
Kermond’s cocaine disqualification a blow to teammates’ medal hopes
The failure of equestrian team’s travelling reserve Rowan Willis to quarantine his horse on time means Australia now cannot enter a team in the showjumping event and therefore loses individual places.
Premier and Coates appear side-by-side after awkward Games ‘rebuke’
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates were positively beaming despite an awkward public encounter.
From ‘backwater’ to ‘Olympic Cinderella’: How the world viewed Brisbane win
Brisbane, with its “humble origins as a 19th-century penal colony”, has soared in the eyes of the world overnight.
Have Your Say
Coates’ cutting behaviour is exactly according to his cloth
So Coates and Palaszczuk worked out the details of her public belittling off-stage you say? That makes no sense.
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and author
