Luigi Mangione was taken to New York where he could eventually face the death penalty.

Health problems in the US,and the repercussions

Jacqueline Maley’s excellent analysis covers parts of the utterly broken system in the US that Luigi Mangione experienced in a failed healthcare system,

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woke

It’s the year that woke broke,a victim of its own excess

It’s been a long time coming,but at last you get the sense that people are waking up to wokeism.

  • byParnell Palme McGuinness
Four-year-old Riley Gillet,of Orlando,lights a candle with her family,marking the beginning of the traditional Jewish holiday of Hanukkah,during the Chabad of Greater Orlando's"Chanukah on the Park"celebration in Winter Park,Fla.,late Sunday,Nov. 28,2021. Held at Central Park,the event included the lighting of a giant menorah,live performers,music and dancing. Jews worldwide will celebrate Hanukkah through Dec. 6. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Opinion
Religion

The time for lights

This year Christians and Jews are celebrating a religious festival at the same time.

  • byNomi Kaltmann
Summer reads illustration by Matt Davidson.

‘Internal’ exile is in fashion,and that’s where I’m headed this summer

Taking comfort in simple pleasures – such as reading – can provide us with a shield against the world’s woes. Toughness can wait.

  • byJacqueline Maley
Turn right:Some are asking if Elon Musk,right,will be Donald Trump’s “co-president”.
Analysis
US politics

Musk helped kill a bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation

The X owner,an unelected figure,not only used his outsize influence on the platform to help sway the US Congress,he did so without regard for the facts.

  • byMelissa Goldin
Sam Konstas.

The moment I knew Sam Konstas was ready for Test cricket

On a gloomy afternoon at the SCG the cricketing prodigy proved that he has what it takes.

  • byGeoff Lawson
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Virat Kohli and Steve Smith index image for Greg Chappell column

I knew when my time was up. Ageing greats Kohli and Smith will,too

Cautiousness and a creeping self-doubt that stems from poor performances and heightened scrutiny:it’s the story of every great batter who faces the inevitability of time.

  • byGreg Chappell
Film still from the movie Heretic starring Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley in a scene from Black Doves.
Opinion
Streaming

This Christmas,Keira and Hugh take us from Love Actually to mass murder,actually

It’s been 21 years since the two combined to conjure the most loved Christmas movie of the 21st century,but now they have turned to a new “blood and baubles” genre.

  • bySteve Meacham
Best of Fitz Files illo

The best and worst of sport in 2024:And that was only Raygun

At the end of another extraordinary sporting year,it’s time to celebrate the best and worst athletes,moments and quotes from 2024.

  • byPeter FitzSimons
Illustration:Simon Letch

Let’s rethink The Lucky Country. Australia’s fortune was never dumb luck

Donald Horne’s seminal book cast Australia as a mediocre country run by second-rate people. The truth is its brand of democracy has often led the world.

  • byNick Bryant
Balmain,Western Suburbs and Wests Tigers fans at Leichhardt Oval.

In NRL clown town,can a Tiger turn into a Magpie? It’s not black and white...

Wests Tigers are a three-ring circus,but there are reasons why the Magpies can’t just swoop in.

  • byDarren Kane
Workers on the Sydenham train station tracks.

Respect all public sector workers with a fair wage

Sydney’s rail network will be strangled by industrial action in the lead-up to New Year after the NSW government failed to strike a pay deal with the Rail Tram and Bus Union.

Vladimir Putin with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. Russia’s energy empire is crumbling.

Putin’s spectacular act of self-sabotage has killed the Kremlin’s biggest market

Gazprom was for decades Russia’s biggest money-spinner and the most striking symbol of the Kremlin’s influence abroad.

  • byBen Marlow
Elon Musk aligned himself with Trump in the closing stages of the presidential race,and it has paid off.

‘Co-president’ Elon Musk? True power of Trump’s ally in the spotlight

The unelected tech billionaire’s role in scrapping a spending deal in Congress alarmed Democrats and watchdog groups,and could result in a government shutdown.

  • byCat Zakrzewski,Jacqueline Alemany,Marianne LeVine,Liz Goodwin andColby Itkowitz
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs are into the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Analysis
England

‘Are you not entertained?’ Postecoglou is two steps away from vindication with Spurs

After a close shave against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup,Ange Postecoglou is inching closer to winning a trophy like he says he always does in his second seasons.

  • byVince Rugari
Illustration:Dionne Gain
Opinion
Christmas

We’re trying Christmas without presents. Blame my late Aunty Elspeth

It’s not the presents that count. It’s who’s present.

  • byMalcolm Knox
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Artificial intelligence can help uni students write essays. But is that such a bad thing?
Opinion
AI

To AI or not to AI? How chatbots can help revive the university essay

Artificial intelligence could help in writing essays,but only if we take the time to reconsider their history and real purpose.

  • byHuw Griffiths
Sydney train commuters are caught in the middle of the brinkmanship between rail unions and the government.

Sydney’s rail network hangs in balance ahead of ultimate showdown

The high-stakes brinkmanship between the state Labor government and powerful rail unions has been leading to this moment for months.

  • byMatt O'Sullivan
Trying to plan Christmas lunch around the weather is a national pastime for Australians.
Opinion
Christmas

Our unhinged annual Christmas obsession is the one thing Aussies can’t control

You’d think living in a country where the weather swings from droughts to flash floods might’ve taught us to be laid-back. Yeah,nah.

  • byKate Halfpenny
E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court,Friday,Sept. 6,2024,after former President Donald Trump appeared in court,in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

What’s scarier than Trump suing to cow the media? The media caving in

News outlets need to keep saying Trump is all the things the courts have declared him to be.

  • byBill Wyman
In the past,the federal government has paid state governments to push through productivity-boosting reforms.
Opinion
Spending

Why bribery is key to boosting our economic prosperity

The key to making us better off in the long term – lifting productivity – may require the feds to offer incentives to the states.

  • byMillie Muroi

The nation has lost its horsepower. Why? Because our leaders are too scared to act

The mid-year economic update is a dismal portrait of a mediocre nation,but both sides of politics are culpable.

  • byDavid Crowe
Opinion
Christmas

All I want for Christmas is world peace and a four-year snooze

Failing that,I’ll have what my dog,Heidi,is having. She seems like the smartest one in the room.

  • byGenevieve Novak
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Opinion
Column 8

Does your ferry have a fridge magnet?

And does your car need a hand?

Elon Musk,Taylor Swift.
Opinion
Trade wars

How Elon Musk and Taylor Swift can resolve US-China relations

While we were sleeping,China took a great leap forward in high-tech manufacturing of everything. Will China bury us? That is not at all inevitable.

  • byThomas L. Friedman
Nudity is the stuff of nightmares for most Australians - but for Germans it’s about connecting with nature.
Opinion
Body image

Germans get it. We need to stop being so hung up about our naked bodies

Like many Australians,I had anxieties about my body. Getting nude in front of strangers has made all the difference.

  • byLiam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
Advertisement

In defence of the middle ground on Gaza

Rodger Shanahan perfectly sums up the disturbing nature of Middle East commentary,where “advocates press hard for their side without conceding any ground to the other”.

Peter Dutton claimed nuclear waste from a small reactor each year would fit in a coke can.

Australians don’t want a nuclear wasteland in their backyards

The main stumbling block facing a Coalition plan for nuclear power stations around the nation will be where to store the waste.

  • The Herald's View
Chief selector George Bailey watches a Shield match alongside Pat Cummins.

Is Darren Lehmann right about Australia’s chief selector being too close to the team?

Critics say George Bailey’s close relationship with the Australian team means hard decisions are not being made,but within the team they have a different view.

  • byDaniel Brettig
Dustin Milligan as Jack Snowman in Hot Frosty.
Opinion
Christmas

Sex merchants have hijacked Christmas. Does Santa really need to be ‘weirdly hot’?

I’m no prude,but isn’t Christmas a time for us to put the horizontal happy hour on ice?

  • byCherie Gilmour
ANZ’s outgoing CEO Shayne Elliot.
Opinion
Big four

‘What the hell is going on?’:Big bank’s year of woe summed up in one meeting

A horror annual general meeting is an ignominious way for ANZ’s outgoing boss Shayne Elliott to mark his exit.

  • byElizabeth Knight

Albanese has taken hits but isn’t a terrible PM. Cut him some slack

Labor is slipping in the polls and there is even a whiff of leadership talk in Canberra. Albo may have tried to avoid picking fights but voters won’t cop that approach any longer.

  • byPaddy Manning
Wall Street tumbled after the Fed shifted its thinking for 2025.

The Trump shadow hanging over Wall Street’s meltdown

A big change in the Federal Reserve’s thinking triggered a bloodbath on Wall Street that has spread around the world.

  • byStephen Bartholomeusz
Usman Khawaja.
Analysis
Test cricket

We all love Uzzie,but we’d love some runs from him even more

Usman Khawaja’s struggles exemplify what has become of this series and perversely enough why it is so engrossing. We’re willing him to make runs,but is that enough?

  • byGreg Baum
Greyhound racing will continues as the feud between Greyhound Racing and the Dapto Agricultural and Horticultural Society heads to court next February.

Kiwis are brave enough to ban greyhound racing. Why aren’t we?

The NSW government tried to ban greyhound racing,but backed down. Now New Zealand have made the decision.

  • byPeter FitzSimons
Opinion
Jobs

Why my bosses are both out of a job. But spa builders are doing OK

What’s in a job title? Everything,if your job just happened to disappear as part of a major revamp by the bureau of statistics of the nation’s thousands of occupations.

  • byShane Wright
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Opinion
Column 8

On the trail of the festoon slug

All that glitters is not gold.

Another one of Raygun’s signature moves.

I was once team Raygun. After her heavy-handed legal threats,no more

The Australian breakdancer’s demand that a venue pay her $10,000 in legal fees over a tribute show she forced them to cancel is beyond a joke.

  • byJordan Baker
Christmas present requests are becoming increasingly expensive.
Opinion
Christmas

935 reasons why Christmas gift guides need to be chucked down the chimney

In theory,I don’t hate gift guides. But tensions arise when it becomes clear that the marketing teams sending these emails don’t exist in the same universe as I do.

  • byWendy Syfret
India’s Jasprit Bumrah.
Analysis
Test cricket

Jasprit Bumrah has Australia’s number. It might be up on Boxing Day

Jasprit Bumrah’s burst was one of a few reasons why India will reach Melbourne feeling like they dodged a bullet and fired one or two of their own as the Gabba Test petered out.

  • byDaniel Brettig
Hugh Marks

New ABC boss has a steep learning curve ahead of him

Marks should be given a chance to prove his critics wrong by recognising that the ABC is not a commercial outfit,but a public broadcaster dedicated to producing independent,trustworthy and quality programming to a diverse audience,regardless of class or political persuasion.

pointy jim

Might look like Chalmers is spending like a drunken sailor,but this is what’s really going on

Both sides know the current system,reliant on the nation’s army of wage slaves,is failing the economy and future generations.

  • byShane Wright
Virat Kohli and Steve Smith.
Analysis
Test cricket

Who needs runs and who’s in a different class? Player ratings from the third Test

The third Test in Brisbane was heavily affected by rain and ended in a draw on the fifth day. Here’s how players from both teams rated.

  • byTom Decent andDaniel Brettig
MCA
Editorial
Art

Don’t blame the MCA for new admission fee. Call out politicians who don’t value the arts

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s decision to charge admission is emblematic of a crisis in Sydney’s cultural institutions.

  • The Herald's View
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in 2019. Financial markets are concerned about a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The world’s most important bromance needs to be rekindled

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump can’t let relations between China and the US deteriorate any further.

  • byKarishma Vaswani

Telling Israel the killing must stop in Gaza is not antisemitic

Israel had every right respond to Hamas,but some of its supporters ignore a critical constraint under international law.

  • byRodger Shanahan
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Alan Jones arrives at court in his white BMW.

For years,Jones has been surrounded by acolytes. In court,he is alone

The former broadcaster cuts a lonely figure as he faces a media scrum,hecklers – and the reporter who has been at the centre of the claims against him.

  • byJacqueline Maley
Wind turbines in Spearville,Kansas. President Biden argued that technological gains and demands for wind and solar infrastructure would create work that would more than make up for job losses.
Opinion
Renewables

Big Oil’s green dream has turned into a multibillion-dollar nightmare

BP and Shell led Big Oil’s push into renewable energy. Now they are leading the retreat.

  • byStephen Bartholomeusz
Jacinta Price graphic

Welcome to Country isn’t for every occasion. Good on you,Melbourne Storm

This debate is not black and white. Let’s not lose sight of what we’re trying to achieve for Indigenous Australians.

  • byJacinta Nampijinpa Price
Scott Boland had an extraordinary Test debut in the Boxing Day match against England.

‘Ready,relentless and super fit’:Scott Boland is India’s MCG nightmare

Ordinarily,Josh Hazlewood’s absence would be characterised as a blow for Australia but,in Scott Boland,selectors have a ready-made replacement.

  • byAndrew Wu