World politics
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Good Weekend
As the Taliban moved on Kabul and locals fled, this Australian flew into its airport
For photojournalist Andrew Quilty, Afghanistan and its people were captivating. Then, overnight, the life he had known disappeared.
- by Tim Elliott
Latest
Solomons broadcaster ‘free’ despite signs of government censorship
Johnson Honimae, the national broadcaster’s chief executive, said the news outlet had taken “critical calls” from the PM’s office but was operating normally.
- by Nick Perry
‘Last year, the FBI foiled a kidnap plot. Now a killer is dispatched to deal with me’
Last year, US prosecutors charged an Iranian intelligence officer and others with plotting to kidnap Masih Alinejad and take her back to Tehran.
- by Tom Hays
Opinion
China relations
Eagle eyes are on Taiwan, but is China distracting us from a ‘second Pearl Harbour’?
It’s merely a scenario, but is it plausible that the world is nervously anticipating the wrong war? One former major general in the Australian Army believes so.
- by Peter Hartcher
Analysis
New Zealand
‘Which polling is that?’: Jacinda Ardern confident despite bumps
NZ Labour led in 52 consecutive published polls since the start of the pandemic. This year’s polls tell a different story.
- by Ben McKay
‘A wonderful time’: New Zealand politician, on a Hawaiian holiday, tells Kiwis he’s hard at work
The blooper recalls a defining moment from Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, who covered up his own holiday in Hawaii taken during savage bushfires in December 2019.
- by Ben McKay
French rivals tied up in knots over dress code for MPs
Is casual dress a proof of the declining standards of the national parliament or a sign it can move with the times?
- by Henry Samuel
German chancellor and wife criticised after foxes scatter confidential papers
Secret documents with briefing notes about leaders’ wives were found strewn across the street after animals tear apart German leader’s bin bags.
- by Daniel Wighton
Russia tells famine-fearing Africa it’s not to blame for food shortage
Vladimir Putin has traded heavily on his theme of Russia as leading a worldwide uprising against Western hegemony. Again and again, he said Americans and their European allies live well at the expense of the rest of the world.
- by Vivian Yee, Anton Troianovski and Abdi Latif Dahir
First order of business: Caroline Kennedy, senior US envoy to visit Solomon Islands
The US delegation will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal where the US battled Japan for dominance of the South Pacific during World War II.
- by Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom