Donna Lu

Forty per cent of Australian women without kids hesitant to have children because of climate change, survey finds More than a third of Coalition voters believe temperatures will not rise at all, poll shows

"Evidence we do have suggests that values of care make women much more open to the alarming nature of the scientific evidence and the visceral impact that weather events have on people." www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Retired Australian teacher discovers the oldest fossil of its kind in southern hemisphere – and a new species Robert Beattie, 82, has found specimens of a 151m-year-old midge that challenge what we know about how the insects evolved

very nice coverage of our Telmatomyia discovery and lovely background on Robert Beattie, who have found the #fossil, by @donnadlu.bsky.social for @theguardian.com
🦖⚒️
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Hello, @australia.theguardian.com is looking for 800 word opinion pieces that can run any time over the summer months. They can be funny, serious, sad, thoughtful, uplifting... Surprise us! If you have an idea you'd like to pitch, email cif.australia@theguardian.com with SUMMER PITCH in the subject

‘Change course now’: humanity has missed 1.5C climate target, says UN head Exclusive: ‘Devastating consequences’ now inevitable but emissions cuts still vital, says António Guterres in sole interview before Cop30

"In his only interview before next month’s Cop30 climate summit, António Guterres acknowledged it is now 'inevitable' that humanity will overshoot the target in the Paris climate agreement, with 'devastating consequences' for the world."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Pregnancy skincare products target women at a vulnerable time. Do any work or do they just stretch the truth? | Antiviral Oils, creams and lotions with names like ‘mummy’s tummy’, ‘bump love’ and ‘belly butter’ abound * Read more in the Antiviral series Pregnancy can be a trying time: you can’t tell whether you’re nauseous or hungry, your body is working at close to the sustainable limit of human endurance, your organs are rearranging to make space for a growing alien. There are myriad indignities: nosebleeds, swelling feet, back pain, and, if you’re unlucky, ceaseless vomiting that goes “full Tarantino”. Continue reading...

Pregnancy skincare products target women at a vulnerable time. Do any work or do they just stretch the truth? | Antiviral

Assessment of malnutrition in preschool-aged children by mid-upper arm circumference in the Gaza Strip (January, 2024–August, 2025): a longitudinal, cross-sectional, surveillance study After nearly 2 years of war and severe restrictions in humanitarian aid, tens of thousands of preschool-aged children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and facing an ...

Study in the Lancet journal finds that Israel's starvation campaign in Gaza has left 55,000 children under the age of five acutely malnourished, risking long-term health damage. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

The passion – and politics – of Peter Combe: ‘Children are wonderful critics because they’re very intolerant’ Wash Your Face in Orange Juice, Newspaper Mama, Toffee Apple … the children’s entertainer who has sold more than 1m albums and DVDs reflects on his 40-year career, childhood and speaking up

Peter Combe goes hard: “Children are being slaughtered, on a daily basis, for almost two years. Our ability to ignore it astounds me. You can talk to any NGO, they all say the same thing – it’s a genocide ... I hope people aren’t surprised I feel the way I do." www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

chart of bird rank per voting rounf showing what is happening in the skeet

Bird of the year voting update! The top 3 have been rock solid over the whole poll. The little penguin, rainbow bee-eater, pelican and splendid fairy-wren have all crashed out of the top 10, while the galah and emu-wren are surging ahead

V happy to say I'm now assistant climate, environment and science editor @australia.theguardian.com, back working with the best team ie @adammorton.bsky.social @readfearn.bsky.social @lisacox.bsky.social @petrastock.bsky.social! Pls get in touch with tips/pitches (& ways to ensure a tawny BOTY win)!

Australian mushroom murders: Erin Patterson guilty verdict ends weeks of laborious detail and ghoulish fascination Victorian jury convicts 50-year-old who poisoned her in-laws with death cap mushrooms, killing three

On ghouls, a triple murder, tragedy

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

While I'm off the science beat for a while, @petrastock.bsky.social is your best bet for science tips and @natashamay.bsky.social is your gal for health stories

As good a week as any to mention that I have started a stint as an assistant news editor in the Melbourne bureau @australia.theguardian.com 🤠 Please get in touch if you spot things we should be covering

Are actors getting better (and ‘bett-ah’) at Australian accents? No longer must we wince through a jarring Cockney-Kiwi mix: Hollywood has finally cracked Aussie dialects. Is it the teaching, the spread of Bluey, AI – or something else?

@donnadlu.bsky.social got to the bottom of why Kaitlyn Dever's Australian accent in Apple Cider Vinegar was so good. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Are actors getting better (and ‘bett-ah’) at Australian accents? No longer must we wince through a jarring Cockney-Kiwi mix: Hollywood has finally cracked Aussie dialects. Is it the teaching, the spread of Bluey, AI – or something else?

For the culture desk, I wrote about why American and British actors no longer seem to butcher (or butch-ah) the Australian accent www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

The social, successful and the supernatural: what makes a politician charismatic? Is Anthony Albanese charismatic? Peter Dutton? Charisma has been linked to electoral victory (just ask Bob Hawke), but defining it can be difficult

The social, successful and the supernatural: I wrote about charisma and why having it depends on who you ask www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

What’s more vacuous than an endless vacuum? It’s Lauren Sánchez and Katy Perry’s party in space | Marina Hyde The all-female Blue Origin flight on Monday broke boundaries and set records in the spouting of girlboss gibberish, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

"I always thought space travel was futuristic, but this was the first time it came off as travelling back in time, in this case using their little capsule to take us back to the most ludicrous inanities of 2010s girlboss feminism." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

YouTube video by Guardian Australia Last chance: the extinction crisis this election is ignoring

Guardian Australia has launched a series about nature and threatened species. It's called Last Chance: The extinction crisis the Australian federal election is ignoring. Includes videos, news and comment pieces.

Here's a preview of what it's about:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4kQ...

Reciprocal Tariffs Taritis Charged to the U.S.A. Including Country São Tomé and Principe Norfolk Island Gibraltar Tuvalu British Indian Ocean Territory Tokelau Guinea-Bissau Svalbard and Jan Mayen Heard and McDonald Islands Reunion Currency Munipelation and Trade Barriers 10% 58% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 73% U.S.A. Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs 10% 29% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 37%

I think I missed some. But here’s a fun fact: the Heard and Macdonald Islands are uninhabited.

The tariff is on penguins.

Changes to ARC grants will make it harder for Australia to combat Trump chaos, researchers warn Plan to cut most standalone positions in favour of shorter fellowships will hurt international recruitment, critics say

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com reporting on the proposed changes to the ARC grants system.

There’s concern that getting rid of standalone fellowships will have lots of unintended consequences, especially for Early-Career Researchers.

By @donnadlu.bsky.social

Study casts doubt on gluten as cause of gut ailments among non-coeliacs Research finds people with self-declared gluten sensitivity experienced symptoms whether or not they ate gluten * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast People who report being gluten intolerant but do not have coeliac disease may be experiencing gut symptoms unrelated to gluten intake, new research suggests. A study involving individuals with self-reported gluten sensitivity has found that they experienced gut symptoms such as bloating and abdominal pain regardless of whether or not they consumed gluten. Continue reading...

Study casts doubt on gluten as cause of gut ailments among non-coeliacs

It’s war and peace with Donald and Pete – and the worst group chat the world has ever seen | Marina Hyde We absolutely won’t tolerate leaks, they said before looping in a journalist to top secret war plans. Feel safe? Me neither, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde in form.
"They really should make a darkly satirical TV show about these absurd, degenerate, unpleasant people. Call it The White Potus"

"Hegseth’s sole comment on the bed he and the guys just shat was to attack the man to whom they personally served this scoop" www.theguardian.com/...

The thin-obsessed world is growing more vicious by the minute. But fat people aren’t going anywhere | Rebecca Shaw It’s time to open up your big fat mouths and push back against fatphobia

My column this week is about how fucking BAD the body image/fatphobic vibes are at the moment and how other people need to engage before it destroys us all. I don’t ever insist you read my stuff but I’d love you to read this one www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Trump cuts to have ‘chilling effect’ on climate science and ‘degrade’ Australia’s ability to forecast weather Australian meteorologists and scientists will be affected by mass firings at Noaa, experts warn

Trump cuts to have ‘chilling effect’ on climate science and ‘degrade’ Australia’s ability to forecast weather

- by @donnadlu.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

thanks Damien!

Trump cuts to have ‘chilling effect’ on climate science and ‘degrade’ Australia’s ability to forecast weather Australian meteorologists and scientists will be affected by mass firings at Noaa, experts warn

Australian scientists and weather forecasters rely on US data and models — NOAA cuts will have a “chilling effect” on climate science and may impact Australia’s ability to accurately predict our future climate, scientists told me www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Gina: the billionaire who wants to make Australia great - podcast Reged Ahmad speaks to Sarah Martin, senior correspondent and the host of our new podcast series, Gina, about who Gina Rinehart is and what she wants

As the federal election approaches, our new podcast series explores how much power and influence Gina Rinehart has - listen to the teaser: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘Global weirding’: climate whiplash hitting world’s biggest cities, study reveals Swings between drought and floods striking from Dallas to Shanghai, while Madrid and Cairo are among cities whose climate has flipped

From @dpcarrington.bsky.social: "17 cities across the globe have been hit by climate whiplash, suffering more frequent extremes of both wet and dry conditions" – including Hangzhou, Jakarta, Dallas, Baghdad, Bangkok, Nairobi and Melbourne www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Fallen trees, howling wind and drunken parrots: bracing for Alfred, I remember another Queensland cyclone Category-four Larry crossed the coast near Innisfail on 20 March 2006. It blew hurricane-force winds over 200km/hour and we had the eye pass directly over us

This piece from Joe Hinchliffe is beautifully poignant and so quintessentially Queensland www.theguardian.com/global/comme...

Australian men doing no more housework than they were 20 years ago – still 50% less than women Men do an average of 12.8 hours a week, while women do 18.4 hours, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (Hilda) report finds

“While women do significantly more paid work than they used to, this divide of unpaid work at home has not changed significantly since we started measuring in 2002.” 🙃 By @caitkelly.bsky.social & @joshnicholas.com
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

No Other Land directors criticise US as they accept documentary Oscar: ‘US foreign policy is helping block the path’ to peace Self-distributed film about Israeli displacement of a Palestinian community beat out Porcelain War and Sugarcane

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ma...