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  • Israeli general says Gaza should remain ‘destroyed for generations’

    Israeli general says Gaza should remain ‘destroyed for generations’

    In a stark interview that has drawn international attention, retired Major General Giora Eiland, a former leader of Israel’s National Security Council, has publicly advocated for keeping the Gaza Strip in ruins for decades, framing widespread Palestinian destruction and collective despair as a core strategic goal for Israel in the aftermath of its year-long military campaign in the enclave.

    Speaking to Israel’s 103FM radio station on Sunday, Eiland argued that any large-scale reconstruction of Gaza runs directly counter to Israeli national interests. “Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt,” he stated. “It is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come. The greater the despair in Gaza and the greater the destruction, and the greater the monument to what they did on October 7, years to come, that is good.”

    A secular Israeli nationalist affiliated with opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman, Eiland has long been a political opponent of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even so, his policy prescriptions for Gaza go far beyond the positions Netanyahu has publicly outlined to the international community.

    Eiland also waded into the debate over U.S. President Donald Trump’s 15-point proposal for Gaza, labeling the plan “pro-Hamas” — a description that aligns with Netanyahu’s formal rejection of the proposal issued Sunday. Drawing a parallel to post-World War II Germany, where the defeated nation ceded 25% of its pre-war territory, Eiland argued Israel should permanently hold the so-called Yellow Line, a boundary marking Israeli military-occupied territory inside Gaza. Israeli forces have steadily expanded this zone of control in recent months, with current occupied territory estimated to cover as much as 70% of Gaza’s total land area. Eiland emphasized that holding this territory is non-negotiable, framing it as a critical security buffer rather than a base for civilian settlements: “Along with this, there is the territorial need for the Yellow Line, which we must not give up under any circumstances. This is a war, the enemy has lost, and we need land, not for settlement, but as a security buffer between the settlements and where the IDF can be located.”

    Beyond his stance on Gaza’s future, Eiland leveled sharp criticism at Netanyahu’s management of Israel’s relationship with the United States, arguing that the Israeli government has become overly reliant on the personal rapport between Netanyahu and Trump, a dynamic he described as unstable. “I believe Israel’s entire approach towards the US in recent years has been outrageous,” he said. “It relies excessively on the personal relationship between Netanyahu and Trump, which is good on some days and less so on others.”

    Instead of an outright rejection of the U.S. plan, Eiland advised Netanyahu to take a more tactical approach: accept the proposal on paper while conditioning approval on protections for Israel’s core strategic demands. “Where did Netanyahu go wrong in my opinion? You should never say no, you should always say yes but… or yes in the sense of I agree if certain points happen,” he explained. He added that Israel could offer a temporary suspension of targeted assassinations in Gaza as a tactical gesture to Washington, while refusing to cede control of the Yellow Line occupied zone.

    Eiland’s controversial comments come as violence persists in Gaza even under the current ceasefire framework that took effect in mid-January 2025. Local health sources report that since the ceasefire began, Israeli forces have killed at least 1,258 Palestinians and injured more than 4,100 others. Earlier this week, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that at least 300 children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past 10 months. Since the start of Israel’s military campaign on October 7, 2023, the campaign has killed at least 73,386 Palestinians and left more than 174,250 others wounded, according to local health authorities.

  • Adelaide man sentenced over homemade bombs found in car days before Christmas

    Adelaide man sentenced over homemade bombs found in car days before Christmas

    A high-stakes emergency incident that unfolded just days before Christmas in suburban Adelaide has concluded with a sentencing that will see the man at the center of the scare walk free from custody in less than a fortnight. On December 23, concerned members of the public in Clovelly Park, a residential neighborhood roughly 7 kilometers south of Adelaide’s central business district, called police after spotting 39-year-old Tristan Atkins slumped unconscious in a running vehicle. What started as a standard welfare check quickly escalated into a major bomb response when officers discovered two homemade explosive devices stowed inside the car.

    The discovery sparked particular anxiety across the region, coming only days after the fatal terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that put Australian law enforcement on high alert for further violence. Atkins, who was homeless and sleeping in his vehicle at the time of the incident, was taken into custody immediately and charged with two offenses: possessing materials for explosive manufacturing and taking preperatory steps to build an explosive device. He entered guilty pleas at an earlier court hearing, and his sentencing was handed down Monday at South Australia’s District Court.

    While the court did not hear a detailed account of why Atkins had the devices in his possession, prosecutors confirmed his intentions were not classified as malicious or terror-related. According to Judge Nicolas Alexandrides, who presided over the sentencing, Atkins told authorities he had acquired the components to build sparkler bombs, which he claimed he believed were comparable to legal consumer fireworks. Judge Alexandrides noted that Atkins had stored the components in his car only after collecting them from a recently vacated rental property, and that he failed to grasp how dangerous the unregulated devices actually were.
    “The explanation you provided for possessing these materials is inadequate, and it does nothing to reduce the risk or potential harm that came from keeping them in your vehicle,” the judge stated in his remarks. “While these devices were unlikely to cause death, they were fully capable of inflicting catastrophic permanent injury, including the loss of a hand or arm.”

    In total, Atkins was sentenced to 11 months and eight days in prison, with a non-parole period of eight months. Because the sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest on December 23, Atkins has already served the vast majority of his sentence behind bars. He will become eligible for release from custody in just two weeks. The incident triggered a massive emergency response at the time, including the deployment of specialist bomb disposal units and increased police patrols through the Clovelly Park residential area, with the devices found stowed on the passenger seat and inside the driver’s side door compartment. The court also acknowledged that Atkins had been experiencing significant personal hardship in the period leading up to the incident, which contributed to him living out of his vehicle.

  • Western Europe experienced hottest June-July on record: EU monitor

    Western Europe experienced hottest June-July on record: EU monitor

    Europe, the continent warming faster than any other on Earth, is facing an unprecedented summer of climate-driven disasters, after the European Union’s official climate monitoring service confirmed Monday that Western Europe has just endured the hottest combined June and July ever recorded.

    Successive back-to-back heatwaves have baked the region, leaving parched landscapes and severe water shortages that have created near-perfect conditions for out-of-control wildfires to spread. Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU’s leading climate monitoring body, shows that the average temperature across Western Europe for the first two months of summer 2025 hit 21.62 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous record set just three years ago in 2022.

    This new record is a direct reflection of the extraordinary, unrelenting heat that has gripped the region since the start of summer, Copernicus officials noted. Beyond air temperatures, soil moisture levels across Western Europe are already significantly lower than they were during the crippling 2022 drought, one of the most severe water shortages the region has seen in modern history.

    Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts which manages the Copernicus program, emphasized that these conditions offer a clear, stark example of how human-caused climate change is supercharging extreme heat events. “Heat and drought increasingly reinforce one another, creating a feedback loop that makes these events more severe and longer-lasting,” Burgess explained.

    Exceptionally dry conditions have been recorded across much of Western and Central Europe in July, stretching from southern Europe’s Spain and France through Central Europe’s Austria and Hungary, and reaching as far north as the United Kingdom, Ireland and parts of Iceland. Major European waterways including the Seine, Rhine and Danube have seen water levels drop to far below normal seasonal averages, disrupting commercial shipping, cutting off water supplies for agricultural irrigation and reducing hydropower output across multiple countries.

    The combination of extreme heat and dry vegetation has also created prime wildfire conditions. Climate scientists have long warned that the frequency of extreme fire-prone weather across Europe is rising steadily as global temperatures climb. This summer, France and Spain have already fought the most destructive wildfires the two nations have seen in living memory, with dangerous blazes also spreading across other European nations, as well as western North America, where the U.S. Northwest and Canada have faced severe fire seasons of their own.

    Beyond land-based extremes, Copernicus also announced that global ocean surface temperatures hit a new record high in July, marking the second consecutive month that this benchmark has been broken. The record warmth is being driven by widespread marine heatwaves around European coastlines and a rapidly strengthening El Niño event developing across the tropical Pacific Ocean.

    The global average sea surface temperature for July hit 20.96 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in 2023. Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus, told reporters on August 5 that while parts of the Mediterranean and North Atlantic are running far above average temperatures, the developing El Niño is the primary driver of the new global ocean heat record. “We are now facing a very large El Niño — possibly unprecedented in terms of its amplitude,” Buontempo said. “It is clear that the contribution coming from the tropical Pacific becomes quite important.”

    El Niño is the warm phase of a natural Pacific climate cycle that temporarily raises tropical ocean temperatures and alters global weather patterns, increasing the risk of extreme drought and flooding across many regions. It also adds extra heat to a planet already warmed by centuries of fossil fuel burning that has pumped greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

    El Niño events typically reach their peak strength at the end of the calendar year, before stored ocean heat is released into the atmosphere, pushing up global average temperatures. The previous major El Niño event helped make 2023 the second-hottest year on record globally, and 2024 the hottest. Buontempo said climate researchers now expect a new global average temperature record to be set either later this year or by early 2027.

    On a global scale, July 2025 tied for the second-warmest July ever recorded, with an average surface air temperature 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline from 1850 to 1900, the benchmark used to measure progress toward global climate targets. The last 11 consecutive years are already the 11 hottest years ever recorded, and Buontempo noted that current temperatures are outside the range that modern human civilization has ever experienced. “We have not seen a climate that warm during our lifetime, and very possibly our civilisation,” he said, adding that the primary driver of this ongoing warming remains the rising concentration of greenhouse gases from human activity.

    Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat generated by humanity’s carbon emissions, making them the planet’s primary natural climate regulator. But rising ocean temperatures come with severe cascading risks: hotter oceans fuel more intense tropical storms, increase extreme rainfall events, and cause widespread coral bleaching that destroys critical marine ecosystems.

    Copernicus generates its climate data using billions of measurements from satellites, land-based weather stations and ocean monitoring sensors, with a consistent temperature record extending back to 1940, making it one of the most trusted regional and global climate monitoring sources in the world.

  • Ithaca bets on hometown hero Odysseus for tourism boom

    Ithaca bets on hometown hero Odysseus for tourism boom

    When Italian lawyer Giorgia Ongarato stepped off the docked ferry onto the shores of the Greek island of Ithaca, her first conversation centered on the epic that has drawn visitors to this quiet Ionian Sea island for centuries: Homer’s *Odyssey*. For Ongarato, a lifelong student of ancient Greek literature who studied the epic as a child, visiting the fabled home of hero Odysseus has been a lifelong dream. Though she counts Christopher Nolan’s newly released blockbuster inspired by the ancient poem among her favorite recent films, she emphasizes that the movie was not what sparked her desire to make the trip—still, she calls the adaptation “wonderful”.

    Now, local businesses and municipal leaders across the island are betting that thousands more travelers like Ongarato will follow her lead, turning the film’s global fame into a long-overdue tourism boom for the quiet, off-the-beaten-path destination. Tucked off the western coast of mainland Greece, Ithaca has never been part of Greece’s crowded tourist circuit, despite its crystal-clear coastal waters, dramatic cliffside bays, and lush, rugged interior carpeted with centuries-old olive groves and fragrant cypress forests. Even at the peak of July and August travel season, the island retains a quiet, unhurried calm that sets it apart from neighboring popular Greek getaways.

    While Nolan’s blockbuster has undeniably piqued global interest in Ithaca, the production has not been without controversy on the island. Though the film shot on location at other Greek sites, not a single scene set on Odysseus’s home island was actually filmed in Ithaca—a fact that has left many local residents disappointed. For the 3,000-person community that hosted two open-air screenings of the film shortly after its worldwide July 16 release, the snub stung.

    Still, most local stakeholders are choosing to focus on the unprecedented publicity the film has brought the island, rather than the missed filming opportunity. Xhimi Xoxha, a restaurant owner in Ithaca’s capital Vathi, says even without on-location shooting, the movie is already driving free global exposure for the island, and he expects those positive economic ripple effects to grow in coming years.

    Ithaca mayor Dionysis Stanitsas echoed that perspective, calling the worldwide media attention “tremendous” even as he acknowledged his disappointment that the production declined the island’s outreach to host filming. “We reached out to the production team and asked that some scenes be filmed here on the island,” Stanitsas explained. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t feasible.” Despite the missed chance, the mayor says the island was already completely booked for the 2024 tourist season by the time the film hit theaters, and he is forecasting even stronger demand for 2025, as more moviegoers see the film and start planning their own trips to the mythic destination.

    Visitors who make the trip will not find a excavated royal palace of Odysseus or a major archaeological site that can confirm the Homeric hero’s literal existence—but the island is steeped in *Odyssey*-themed heritage at every turn. Statues of Odysseus and Homer line village squares and stand outside the town hall, and working fishing boats bobbing in the sun-drenched main port bear names tied to the epic, from Telemachus (Odysseus’s son) to Calypso, the nymph who held the hero captive on her island for seven years.

    Local souvenir shops cater to mythology fans, selling small busts of Homer and Penelope, Odysseus’s faithful wife, graphic T-shirts featuring the one-eyed giant Cyclops Polyphemus, and hand-painted decorative wall plates emblazoned with the Trojan Horse. According to legend, Dexia Beach, a popular soft-sand spot just a short walk from the port, is the exact spot where Odysseus washed ashore after his decade-long voyage home from the Trojan War.

    Archaeologist Spyros Couvaras, who has worked on sites across Ithaca, says he expects a dramatic long-term increase in visitor numbers, driven by a shifting trend in global travel: modern travelers are no longer satisfied with just beach getaways, they are craving immersive cultural and mythic experiences that the island can deliver in spades. Couvaras notes that while Nolan’s film is the immediate catalyst for the current wave of interest, the enduring pull of Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic is the real draw that will keep visitors coming long after the film leaves theaters. “The driving force of the renewed interest was undoubtedly the movie,” Couvaras said. “But behind Nolan’s film stands Homer.”

  • Western Europe sets new temperature record as heat waves pummel the region

    Western Europe sets new temperature record as heat waves pummel the region

    A brutal summer heat wave sweeping across Western Europe has broken the region’s average temperature record for the June-July period, a benchmark previously set just four years ago in 2022, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed.

    The extreme heat event actually began earlier, starting in May 2026, and has already triggered cascading environmental and public health crises across the continent: large-scale wildfires have burned thousands of hectares of land, prolonged drought has strained agricultural and water supplies, multiple nations have broken their all-time national temperature records, and thousands of premature heat-related deaths have been projected by public health researchers.

    Global climate data paints an equally stark picture for 2026. As of the end of July, it ranks as the third-warmest year ever recorded globally, trailing only 2024 and 2025 in average temperatures. But scientists note there is still half of the year remaining for temperatures to rise further, and the confluence of two major warming forces makes it increasingly likely 2026 could claim the unwanted title of hottest year on record by December.

    The dual drivers are accelerating anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming and a particularly strong El Niño event developing in the equatorial Pacific. El Niño is a naturally recurring climate pattern marked by elevated ocean surface temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean, which ripples out to drive temperature increases across much of the globe. Even if 2026 does not overtake 2024’s top spot, scientists say it will almost certainly land near the top of the historical ranking.

    Copernicus also confirmed a new concerning ocean temperature milestone: July 2026 saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for the month across all extra-polar oceans – the parts of the world’s oceans outside polar regions that do not experience seasonal sea ice. The agency pegged the new July average at 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.73 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the previous 2023 record of 20.89 C (69.60 F). Researchers said developing El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific were a key contributor to the new ocean heat record.

    Globally, the average surface air temperature for July 2026 came in at 16.90°C (62.42 F), tying it with July 2024 as the second-warmest July ever recorded, according to Copernicus.

    For Western Europe specifically, the June-July 2026 average temperature hit 21.62°C (70.92 F), shattering the previous regional average mark. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which hosts Copernicus operations, explained the dynamic that prolonged and amplified the regional heat wave.

    “Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, and the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought,” Burgess explained. “As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily. This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”

  • ‘Haven’t really been a big fan’: Jayden Sullivan unloads on NRL rule as he firms for South Sydney starting spot

    ‘Haven’t really been a big fan’: Jayden Sullivan unloads on NRL rule as he firms for South Sydney starting spot

    As South Sydney Rabbitohs gear up for their high-stakes Friday blockbuster against the Canterbury Bulldogs, young utility player Jayden Sullivan — the frontrunner to replace injured starting half Ashton Ward — has launched a candid critique of the National Rugby League’s controversial six-man bench rule, arguing it is actively holding back the development of emerging specialist playmakers.

    Ward was forced out of South Sydney’s Saturday night victory over the Parramatta Eels after suffering a hamstring injury during a goal attempt, and the 24-year-old playmaker is set to miss an extended stretch of games. His injury has created an unexpected starting opportunity for Sullivan, who will make only his third starting appearance of the 2024 NRL season if named this week.

    This season, Sullivan has spent the majority of his time on the first-grade bench: he has made several appearances coming on as a reserve, while he has been left as an unused substitute six times already this year. For the young half, this lack of consistent game time is a direct unintended consequence of the NRL’s decision to expand the match day bench to six players. While the rule provides much-needed flexibility for teams dealing with early-game injuries to outside backs, Sullivan says it robs young specialists of the regular minutes they need to grow.

    “I’ve been part of the six-man bench set-up for a while now, but I’ve never really been a big fan of it,” Sullivan told reporters ahead of the Bulldogs clash. “I’ve stayed healthy all season and I’ve only played 10 games — it’s been pretty tough. I’m still a young player, I’ve only got 50 first-grade games under my belt, and I’m still learning how to play the half position. The best way to improve is to play week in and week out, whether that’s in the Cup or the NRL, and I just haven’t been getting that opportunities right now.”

    Sullivan has not been completely sidelined this year, picking up seven matches in the NSW Cup to stay in match condition, and he has held open, honest conversations with legendary Rabbitohs head coach Wayne Bennett about his development pathway. The young playmaker says Bennett has been a consistent advocate for him, and the pair regularly align on the best way forward for his career.

    “It’s a tricky position to be in,” Sullivan explained. “I still want to be part of the first-grade squad, even if that means sitting on the bench, but it’s hard to stay sharp when you’re not getting on the field. Wayne’s been great with me, we can talk honestly about where I’m at, which I really appreciate.”

    With Ward sidelined, Sullivan is set to get an extended run of game time over the coming weeks, an opportunity he says he is relishing as the Rabbitohs push toward a finals berth. Sullivan has not played finals football at the NRL level, but his last post-season appearance came in 2019, when he led the Illawarra Steelers to a famous SG Ball Cup grand final victory over Manly Warringah Sea Eagles — and seven years on, he is hungry for another shot at high-stakes football.

    “Seven years is a crazy long time to wait for another crack at finals footy, but I’m just grateful to get any opportunity to play now,” he said. “I’ve been healthy all year, even if I haven’t played as much as I want, and the two years before that I was out with injuries the whole time, so I don’t take any minute for granted.”

    Sullivan also paid tribute to Ward, who he says is one of his closest friends off the field, with both hailing from Wollongong. “Wardy’s had an outstanding year, and I’ve learned so much from him,” he said. “I know exactly what it’s like to do a hamstring injury, I’ve had a few myself, so it’s really tough for him right now. I’m just sending him all my support as he recovers, and I’m going to do my best to fill in while he’s out.”

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez freezing her eggs and hasn’t ‘ruled out’ presidential run

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez freezing her eggs and hasn’t ‘ruled out’ presidential run

    New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made a rare, personal reveal: the 36-year-old progressive leader has opted to freeze her eggs, and she is opening up about the early stages of the process to destigmatize fertility care amid a national reckoning over reproductive rights in the United States.

    Ocasio-Cortez first shared short video clips documenting her experience on social media this past Sunday. Just hours after posting the content, she appeared on ABC News’ *This Week* where she addressed both her fertility journey and swirling speculation about her future political ambitions.

    In her candid social media clips, Ocasio-Cortez walks viewers through a self-administered injection required for the egg-freezing process, shares actionable tips she has picked up from her own medical appointments, and answers common public questions about everything from the steep costs of fertility treatment to the clinical steps involved and how accessing this care navigates what she describes as America’s broken healthcare system.

    Speaking to *This Week*, the congresswoman explained her decision to share such a personal process: she aims to normalize open conversations about egg freezing and fertility care, particularly at a moment when reproductive autonomy is under attack across the country. “This administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy,” she told anchor George Stephanopoulos. “I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes,” she added, framing her transparency as an act of political solidarity with people navigating reproductive care access nationwide.

    The conversation soon turned to growing rumors about Ocasio-Cortez’s national political aspirations, prompted by recent polling that shows strong popularity for her as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. When first asked about a White House run, Ocasio-Cortez laughed and deflected the question, emphasizing her immediate political priority. “I’m focused on winning the midterms, I’m running for Congress right now,” she said.

    When pressed further on whether she would leave the door open to a 2028 presidential bid and whether such a run is a realistic prospect, Ocasio-Cortez confirmed she has not closed off that path. “I haven’t ruled out the possibility and I’m very humbled by the tremendous amount of support out there,” she said, adding that “We have a responsibility to remain focused on the midterms and not on our individual aspirations or plans.”

    When asked about another high-profile potential race—a challenge to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York’s senior Democratic senator, for his Senate seat—Ocasio-Cortez offered a similarly open-ended response, saying “anything was possible.”

    The upcoming U.S. midterm elections, scheduled for early November, fall in the middle of President Biden’s four-year presidential term. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election, along with 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate, making the cycle critical for Democrats looking to maintain or expand their control of Congress.

  • China evacuates one million from homes as massive storm arrives

    China evacuates one million from homes as massive storm arrives

    On a Sunday evening, eastern China braced for the impact of Typhoon Dolphin, which made two consecutive landfalls along the Zhejiang province coastline, forcing emergency responders to evacuate more than one million residents across the region including the major coastal metropolis of Shanghai.

    Meteorological officials confirmed the storm first made landfall in Yuhuan at 17:30 local time (09:30 GMT), carrying maximum sustained wind speeds of 150 kilometers per hour (94 miles per hour). Roughly 60 minutes later, the typhoon made a second landfall in nearby Wenzhou, maintaining enough strength to batter coastal infrastructure and trigger severe weather warnings across a wide swathe of eastern China.

    Before the storm’s arrival, national meteorological authorities issued the nation’s highest-level red alert for typhoon activity, activating emergency response protocols across multiple provincial and municipal governments. By Monday morning, however, the system had weakened enough to be downgraded to a tropical storm, though official warnings remain in place through Wednesday.

    As the weakened storm system progresses inland, emergency management teams continue to warn residents of ongoing hazards, including torrential downpours, widespread flash flooding, and elevated landslide risks across multiple inland and coastal regions. On Monday, heavy rainfall was forecast for seven provinces – Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang – as well as the major urban center of Shanghai.

    The severe weather has brought regional transportation to a near standstill. In Shanghai alone, more than 1,400 scheduled flights were canceled in advance of the storm’s arrival, with rail services also suspended and ferry routes closed to protect passenger safety.

    Local authorities have urged residents across the affected region to avoid unnecessary outdoor activities, and dozens of high-profile tourist sites have temporarily shut their gates to visitors. Closures include large sections of Shanghai Disneyland and Legoland Shanghai, alongside multiple popular viewing platforms along the city’s iconic Bund waterfront.

  • Laneway Festival axes Adelaide, Perth shows in major 2027 shake-up

    Laneway Festival axes Adelaide, Perth shows in major 2027 shake-up

    One of Australia’s most beloved and long-running indie-pop music festivals, Laneway Festival, has announced sweeping changes to its 2027 national schedule that will see the event take a one-year hiatus from two of its longest-standing host cities: Adelaide and Perth. The pause marks the first time the festival will skip the two markets outside of the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period, breaking a 19-year annual streak in Perth that dates back to 2009, and a 19-year run in Adelaide stretching back to 2008. Organisers made the announcement official via a public post on the festival’s Instagram channel on Monday morning, moving quickly to address growing fan speculation and reassure attendees that the break is not permanent.

    In the statement, organisers acknowledged the news would come as a disappointment to loyal local audiences. “To our Adelaide and Perth friends, we know this will be disappointing. In 2027, Laneway will be taking a break in your cities,” the post read. The festival team went on to reflect on its 20-plus year history of bringing independent music to audiences across Australia, New Zealand, and even international stops including Singapore and Detroit. “Running so many shows, so close together, across so much ground is a logistical feat we are proud of, but it also asks a lot of our line-up and crew,” the statement explained.

    Organisers emphasized that the planned pause serves two key purposes: it will allow the team to refine the overall festival experience to deliver the highest quality event for attendees across all stops, and it will open up touring gaps that let more performing artists book standalone headline shows in cities that are typically only included on the festival’s annual route. The statement closed with a note of gratitude to local fans: “Adelaide and Perth, we love you! We are incredibly grateful to every single person who has shown up for us over the years,” adding “this isn’t goodbye, just see you soon” to reinforce that the hiatus is temporary.

    Alongside the hiatus announcement, organisers confirmed a change of location for the festival’s Queensland stop. After being hosted on the Gold Coast in recent cycles, the 2027 Queensland Laneway show will return to its previous home in Brisbane. As of the announcement date, the full 2027 festival line-up of performing artists has not yet been revealed to the public.

  • AFL 2026: Patrick Dangerfield admits Geelong ‘buggered up’ Jake Kolodjashnij concussion waiver

    AFL 2026: Patrick Dangerfield admits Geelong ‘buggered up’ Jake Kolodjashnij concussion waiver

    A growing controversy over a contentious concussion-related waiver agreement involving Geelong Cats player Jake Kolodjashnij has prompted the club’s captain Patrick Dangerfield to publicly acknowledge the team made missteps in the process, while urging the public and football community to wait for full details before drawing final conclusions.

    The scandal first broke into public view last Thursday, when it was revealed that Geelong’s leadership and Kolodjashnij had reached an agreement that saw the defender waive his right to file future legal claims against the club if he develops long-term brain injuries linked to repeated on-field concussions. By Friday, the player himself went public to confirm his identity as the athlete at the center of the case, and Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking released a statement emphatically denying that Kolodjashnij had been pressured or coerced into signing the controversial document.

    Speaking to Fox Footy Monday morning while arriving for team training, Dangerfield offered the most candid comment from a club leader to date, admitting that portions of the process were handled poorly. “It’s not until you unpack all of the detail that you sort of find out what the whole process was,” Dangerfield said. “Why it was done the way that it was. Clearly, there’s some parts of it that we buggered it up and we can be better, but I still think there’s a bit to unpack yet.”

    Like most outside observers, Dangerfield said he first learned of the agreement via social media last Thursday morning, a reveal that came as a shock even to the team’s captain. He acknowledged that the topic of player brain health is deeply emotionally charged for football communities, making it difficult to wait for full context before reacting. “As an older player what I’ve learned over time is you’ve got to wait for the detail before the shock and awe kicks in,” he explained. “That’s a bit of a challenge with something like this that is very much emotive, and especially when it comes to players’ health and when it’s one of our own, one my players – that’s certainly concerning in that sense.”

    Dangerfield added that key contextual details about the agreement are still being assessed by the Australian Football League (AFL), with Geelong staff working over the past several days to compile and share full records. “But you’ve got to get the detail first. The nuance to that is the context of how it was done and clearly there has been more information needed from the AFL and that’s what the club has been doing over the past few days,” he said. “I think it’s not until we get all that information, that’s assessed, there will be a decision made around process and all that sort of stuff.”

    Beyond the procedural controversy, Dangerfield emphasized that the human impact on Kolodjashnij and his family has been largely overlooked amid intense media scrutiny. “I think that’s not a question that’s been asked a lot over the last little bit, that human element sometimes gets lost in the chase for a story,” he said. “That’s been, as players, the most important thing for us. And as leaders of the football club, it’s been a pretty difficult few days for Jake and his family for obvious reasons.”