Australia – waving Saturn goodbye for now

Australia’s 2026 opened with catastrophic bushfires in Victoria and a climb down from PM Anthony Albanese in agreeing to a royal commission into last month’s shooting at Bondi Beach which targeted a Jewish festival and left 15 people dead. He had previously argued that reforms on gun ownership and hate speech, steps to tackle antisemitism and a review into intelligence and law enforcement agencies offered the quickest response. But following weeks of public pressure, he reversed his