Being in a same-sex relationship can make you weirdly invisible. Queer identity shouldn’t be treated as abnormal

My boyfriend and I invented a game on our recent trip to Italy. We called it “invisible gays”, which might have been an attempt at some kind of word play around “gays” and “gaze” – but I was on holiday and feeling lazy, so I didn’t push it.

The game began when one night he took me out to a little trattoria to celebrate my birthday. It was a warm night, and fairy lights were entangled in the fragrant blooming flowers over our heads, and we drank good wine and ate bowls of perfect pasta, and there was candlelight, and it was so romantic I wouldn’t have blinked if two dogs had started smooching over a strand of spaghetti. Che bello!

Sax Institute is recruiting for 18 and Up, an intergenerational study of wellbeing and ageing that follows its landmark 45 and Up study

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Researchers hope to better understand the drivers of major health challenges facing younger people, such as mental illness and rising cancer rates, through the recruitment of 100,000 people for Australia’s largest intergenerational study of wellbeing and ageing.

The independent and not-for-profit research institute the Sax Institute on Thursday launched the 18 and Up study, which will follow the health of those aged 18 to 45 throughout their lives.

Victorian court of appeal rules Patterson should be jailed for life with no parole over deadly beef wellington lunch that killed three people

• Erin Patterson mushroom murders appeal – live updates

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Erin Patterson has lost her bid to overturn her convictions and been resentenced to life behind bars with no chance of release, as Victoria’s highest court handed down its decision on two appeals regarding her triple murder case.

The court of appeal ruled on the two appeals on Friday, after justices Lesley Taylor, Stephen McLeish and Peter Kidd heard arguments from her legal team and prosecutors in August.

A once-confidential letter says child sexual abuser might implicate senior church officials if allowed near ‘the legal arena’ upon his release from jail

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Lawyers from a leading law firm for the Marist Brothers have been subpoenaed to explain a once-confidential document showing they advised the Catholic order to keep a serial offender out of “the legal arena”, suggesting he was too honest and might implicate senior church officials.

The offender was “regrettably up front” about his interactions with senior leadership, and could not be trusted to heed “suggestions” about “not dumping on others excessively”, the document says.

Victorian court of appeal rules Patterson should be jailed for life with no parole over deadly beef wellington lunch that killed three people

• Erin Patterson mushroom murders appeal – live updates

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Erin Patterson has lost her bid to overturn her convictions and been resentenced to life behind bars with no chance of release, as Victoria’s highest court handed down its decision on two appeals regarding her triple murder case.

The court of appeal ruled on the two appeals on Friday, after justices Lesley Taylor, Stephen McLeish and Peter Kidd heard arguments from her legal team and prosecutors in August.

Bush Heritage hopes to buy Wooroora station, which links wet sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland and is home to 12 endangered species

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A majestic tract of land in far north Queensland that links wet tropics and world heritage rainforest, and contains headwaters that flow to the Great Barrier Reef, could be bought and protected by Christmas, after a conservation group raised more than $19m in private donations to buy the cattle station.

Wooroora spans more than 20,000 hectares of largely intact wet sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland on the lands of the Jirrbal people about 100km south-west of Cairns – and borders Bush Heritage’s existing 43,575-hectare Yourka Reserve in one of the most biodiverse regions in Australia.

‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyage

As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”

He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.

‘Miracle’ cache of letters written by French scientist who died in ill-fated La Pérouse mission give personal account of 1785 voyage

As he prepared to climb the scaffolding to be publicly executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI is reported to have asked: “Is there news of Monsieur de la Pérouse?”

He was referring to Jean-François de Galaup, the count of Pérouse, a naval officer and navigator whom the French king had dispatched in 1785 on a round-the-world scientific mission to rival discoveries made by the English explorer Captain James Cook.

Pauline Hanson says Anthony Albanese made ‘unsolicited’ offer of adviser with $200,000 salary to one of her MPs

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The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, offered the One Nation MP David Farley an additional staff member in what the party has called an “unsolicited” move, made in an attempt to win over the new politician using taxpayer funds.

In a statement posted on social media, Pauline Hanson claimed the move, which would cost taxpayers as much as $200,000 in additional salary, was an attempt to “exert undue political influence” over politicians.

Vana-Reese Schuster-Togiatau was injured during the shooting outside Fitzy’s Loganholme in the city’s south on Saturday

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Potential gang involvement in the fatal drive-by shooting of a 19-year-old woman is being investigated by police.

Vana-Reese Schuster-Togiatau, from Jimboomba, was hit in the head and neck when masked gunmen opened fire into a crowd outside Fitzy’s Loganholme, a pub in Brisbane’s south, on Saturday night.

Prime minister vows not to slash health and education funding amid political problem over handling of economy

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Anthony Albanese has ruled out major cuts to health, education and essential services in December’s mid-year budget update, but conceded savings are required as Labor struggles to curb accelerating inflation.

Amid growing pressure from within Labor’s own ranks, as well as from the opposition and business, Albanese said the Coalition was hypocritical in not supporting existing savings proposals, including the government’s plan to reduce the private health insurance rebate for people over 65.

Richard Norton, 75, went into cardiac arrest in March 2025 after injecting prescribed but unapproved CJC1295 and ipamorelin

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The death of an Australian actor after injecting unapproved peptides could result in tougher restrictions on the substances.

Richard Norton, 75, an experienced film industry fight choreographer, stuntman and martial artist, went into cardiac arrest in March 2025 after injecting a prescribed but unapproved peptide.

Vana-Reese Schuster-Togiatau was injured during the shooting outside Fitzy’s Loganholme pub on Saturday

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Potential gang involvement in the fatal drive-by shooting of a 19-year-old woman is being investigated by Queensland police.

Vana-Reese Schuster-Togiatau, from Jimboomba, was hit in the head and neck when masked gunmen opened fire into a crowd outside Fitzy’s Loganholme, a pub in Logan, south of Brisbane, on Saturday night.

Official’s controversial September request for Senate hearing footage to not be shared on social media has been heavily criticised

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The secretary of the defence department approved a senior official’s controversial idea to tell a Senate hearing that footage of public servants giving evidence should not be shared on social media because it could invite online bullying and raise national security concerns.

Emails obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information reveal deputy secretary Celia Perkins’ planned request to the parliamentary inquiry was flagged with the offices of deputy prime minister Richard Marles and assistant defence minister Peter Khalil, and received the backing of department secretary Meghan Quinn.

Trial hears accused told police he wasn’t ‘avoiding them’ in three-minute call before he turned himself in after allegedly murdering Jesse Baird and Luke Davies

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A police officer accused of a double murder told police he was not avoiding them despite vanishing for days after the incident, a Sydney court has heard.

The court heard police attempted to contact Beau Lamarre-Condon after the alleged murders, with a colleague messaging him on Instagram: “Hey hun … can you please contact the crime manager at eastern suburbs asap when you get a chance?”

Concerns raised about appointment of former federal senator, Amanda Stoker, who has previously supported the rights of people accused of sexual assault

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Women’s safety advocates have raised concerns about the appointment of rightwing Queensland MP Amanda Stoker as the state’s minister for the prevention of domestic violence in light of her resurfaced statements that people should not “blindly” believe women who make allegations of violence.

Stoker, who was appointed to the role on Saturday, argued in a 2023 article that the recent push to believe complaints “rather than carefully assess[ing] relevant evidence” would harm innocent defendants.

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The National Gallery of Victoria presents the first major Australian solo exhibition of the Melbourne artist, whose work references African studio photography, family archives, Catholic imagery and science fiction, while paying tribute to the myths and traditions of Dinka Bor culture in South Sudan.

Passage: The Art of Atong Atem will run from Friday until 14 June at the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square. Entry is free

• Keeping it real: the vivid photography of Atong Atem – in pictures

I’m hopeful these elections will be a win for democracy rather than dictatorship, for peace rather than war, and humanity rather than hubris

Recently I made my own envelope out of a sheet of paper and sticky tape, signed it and affixed a sticker. Then I took it to my nearest Australia Post shop in Sydney and mailed it.

In other words, I voted from abroad in the US midterm elections. Because my last place of residence in the US was the state of Virginia, I can register to vote and request a ballot online, but the ballot still needs to be printed, signed, sealed in an envelope made of folded paper, signed again, placed inside another (store-bought) envelope and mailed in. There was no sausage sizzle or cake stall to reward me for my civic duty, and no spectre of a fine if I didn’t complete it.

Nothing done to stop planting weapons on dead Afghans, ADF inspector says, as ‘breakdown of command’ allowed ‘egregious behaviour’

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Some Australian SAS officers knew that soldiers under their command were using “throwdowns” – planting weapons on dead Afghan civilians to portray them as combatants – but did nothing to stop the unlawful practice, a previously unpublished military report has said.

Posted online this week, the executive summary of a 2021 investigation into the “cultural context” of the special operations command by the inspector general of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) is scathing about the “breakdown of command” and the erosion of military discipline during special forces operations in Afghanistan, which “resulted in episodes of potential and actual egregious behaviour”.

Bush Heritage hopes to buy Wooroora station, which links wet sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland and is home to 12 endangered species

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A majestic tract of land in far north Queensland that links wet tropics and world heritage rainforest, and contains headwaters that flow to the Great Barrier Reef, could be bought and protected by Christmas, after a conservation group raised more than $19m in private donations to buy the cattle station.

Wooroora spans more than 20,000 hectares of largely intact wet sclerophyll forest and savanna woodland on the lands of the Jirrbal people about 100km south-west of Cairns – and borders Bush Heritage’s existing 43,575-hectare Yourka Reserve in one of the most biodiverse regions in Australia.