☕️ Sudan's war, explained

Here’s a window into my world: it’s my job to figure out how to keep TDA growing, but do so in a way that is always true to TDA’s mission. That means making sure that TDA delivers news to as many people as possible, with as few barriers as possible.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the choices in front of us, and instead of guessing, I thought I’d just ask for your take. Knowing that all of these options really help TDA grow, which one of these are you most likely to do?

I’ll come back tomorrow to break down the results with you - I think it’s kinda cool to chat through what we think as a group, and share some thoughts as I continue to obsess over how to help TDA write more stories, hire more young people, and help more readers like you make sense of the world.

“We will take back calls that relate to Triple Zero calls and relate to vulnerable customers… and ensure that they are dealt with onshore in Australia. And we’re in the process of doing exactly that.”
Optus Chief Executive Stephen Rue speaking to a Senate inquiry on Monday about the company's Triple Zero outage in September.

$6.9 billion
Westpac's annual net profit (after tax) for 2025. The figure is down 1% on the previous financial year. Despite "ongoing global disruption and economic uncertainty," CEO Anthony Miller said he's "optimistic about the outlook" for Australia.

Astronauts can gradually lose their eyesight in space due to pooling fluid behind the eyes. A NASA study found that multiple male astronauts have confirmed visual changes during and after long-duration space flights.

The Nationals have unanimously agreed to stop supporting net-zero emissions by 2050.

Leader David Littleproud said the party is “not walking away from reducing emissions,” but instead finding “a cheaper, better, and fairer way.”

Coalition partner the Liberal Party, which is yet to reach a consensus on net zero, said it acknowledges the Nationals’ decision “as their own party… to arrive at their own position.”

Net zero refers to balancing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced with the amount removed from the atmosphere.

When fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil are burned, they release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Australia has legislated to achieve net zero by 2050. The plan involves reducing emissions by transitioning to renewable energy, such as wind and solar.

The Nationals’ announcement comes after senior party members commissioned a report into Australia’s climate policy from the Page Research Centre.

The centre was founded by then-Nationals leader John Anderson in 2003.

Its report says “Australia’s net zero strategy is failing,” and that the policy is “raising costs, hollowing out our industrial base, and degrading the environment it claims to protect.”

One of its key findings was that Australia is reducing emissions “at nearly twice the pace of comparable economies”.

Littleproud said that while Australia should “live up to our commitments internationally,” climate adaptations should be done “sensibly”.

“We believe that we can peg ourselves to the rest of the world... we’re not going to streak ahead.”

He added that efforts should focus on “getting practical measures on the ground to address climate change”.

The Liberal Party, which makes up the majority of the Coalition, is currently reviewing its energy policies.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra on Monday, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she hopes to see the two parties “sitting down together” to develop a united position against what she described as the Government’s “train wreck energy policy”.

The Australian reported on Monday that Ley is considering not supporting net zero, citing Liberal Party sources.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

☀️ Think suntanning in your 20s is harmless? Almost 9 in 10 young Aussies still do it, but your skin remembers more than you think.

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A senior Sudanese official has accused a paramilitary group of war crimes in the country’s west.

Last week, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over the city of el-Fasher, with the UN reporting the group attacked a hospital, killing 460 people.

At a press conference on Sunday (local time), Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, confirmed the country’s government will not negotiate with the RSF to end almost three years of civil war.

In April 2023, civil war broke out in Sudan between two rival military factions: the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

In October 2024, the UN accused the RSF of “major” attacks on civilians, including “rampant sexual violence” against women and girls.

In April 2025, the SAF regained control of much of the capital city, Khartoum, nearly two years after it was taken by the paramilitary group.

The RSF controls much of the country’s west, including Darfur.

el-Fasher is the capital city of the North Darfur state. As of late October, it had a civilian population of roughly 260,000 people.

Until last week, el-Fasher was the only major city in the region not under RSF control, which had been trying to capture it for 18 months.

The city has been cut off from humanitarian aid since February 2025, meaning civilians were trapped inside with little food, water, or medicine, while also being regularly attacked.

Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported the RSF had killed at least 460 people on el-Fasher’s only functioning hospital.

The strike was part of a broader rampage in the city, which resulted in the RSF taking control.

UN official Tom Fletcher said there were “credible reports of widespread executions” once the RSF entered el-Fasher.

The total death toll is unknown, but Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) analysis of satellite imagery shows “evidence of alleged mass killings” by the RSF.

HRL’s report said that following the RSF takeover, “el-Fasher appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of... Indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution.”

According to the Red Cross’ dictionary of international law, ethnic cleansing is the process of removing members of an ethnic or religious group from an area “by violent or terror-inspiring means”.

HRL said the RSF’s actions “may be consistent with war crimes... and may rise to the level of genocide.”

The HRL’s report is the latest in a series of allegations that the RSF is committing serious human rights violations in Sudan.

In January, the U.S. Government said the RSF was murdering “men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis,” and raping women and girls “from certain ethnic groups”.

In July, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameen Khan told the UN Security Council she and her team believe war crimes are being committed in Sudan, and that evidence is actively being gathered to support future cases.

Then, in August, the Sudan Doctors Network accused the RSF of targeting and killing people in Darfur based on their ethnicity.

It alleged an RSF massacre of 13 people was part of an “ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide”.

On Sunday, Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, called on other governments to list the RSF as a terrorist organisation.

Adawi has accused the RSF of carrying out war crimes. He also claims the group is backed by the United Arab Emirates. The UAE has denied this.

The majority of civilians fleeing el-Fasher have headed to the nearby city of Tawila. The UN reports that around 650,000 displaced people are already sheltering there.

UNICEF said an estimated 130,000 children in the city are “at a high risk of grave rights violations, with reports of abduction, killing and maiming, and sexual violence.”

WHO has also called for an end to the hostilities in el-Fasher and across Sudan, to allow for the “safe, rapid, and unimpeded humanitarian access.“

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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^{Source: GUG, 2026}

🍊 Sinner wins in Paris to reclaim world number one. More details here.
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The chance discovery of an old Schweppes bottle came during a recent beach cleanup near Esperance, according to the Associated Press. Inside the glass bottle were two handwritten notes, dated 15 August 1916, and signed by Australian soldiers, Privates Malcolm Neville, 27, and William Harley, 37. The bottle was thrown into the ocean off the coast of South Australia during their journey to France.

Neville’s note, addressed to his mum, said the food on the ship was “really good,” and that he was “happy as Larry,” despite the choppy conditions at sea. Harley’s note said, “May the finder [of this letter] be as well as we are”. The letters have been passed on to the soldiers’ families.

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Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Three costumed burglars who were caught on camera approaching a home in the U.S. state of Virginia have turned out not to be robbers at all.

In fact, the three are teenage relatives of the homeowner playing a prank.

Doorbell camera footage shows the group walking up to the house, shouting demands, then jumping a fence into the backyard.

Police initially described the incident as “an attempted burglary” that “terrorised a family in their home.”

After “100 investigative hours,” officers identified three suspects aged 14 to 16 — all of whom were related to the victim.

A woman has since admitted she, her two sons, and her nephew were behind the prank. Two other people were involved in filming the prank from the street.

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

One of the world’s biggest music companies, Universal, has announced a major deal with an AI song generator.

The first-of-its-kind partnership would’ve been a global story on its own… But it’s the fact that Universal had been trying to sue the very platform it’s now working with that’s added another layer of interest.

Today, we’ll unpack how we got here and what this deal means for the creative industry and the future of music.