In the end, he was just an elderly, grey-faced man in the dock. Not a prince of the church, not a cardinal, but a man convicted of and sentenced for terrible crimes against children. A man who once flew first class will celebrate his 78th birthday in prison, and at the very least, his 79th, 80th and 81st. A large …

Malcolm Turnbull has slammed Tony Abbott’s suggestion that Australia should reinvest in coal power, labelling the idea “ideology and innumerate idiocy”. Mr Turnbull’s blunt intervention adds fuel to the heated debate on energy policy between the former prime ministers, which reignited on Friday when Mr Abbott said he had reversed his recent view that Australia should withdraw from the Paris …

An Australian woman trapped with her two young children in a refugee camp for Islamic State group families says her daughter needs urgent medical care and she wants to come home. The woman refused to confirm her identity, but it’s believed she is 24-year-old Zehra Duman from Melbourne. She is being held at Al Hawl refugee camp in north-east Syria. …

About 400 ISIS militants have been captured trying to escape the last piece of land the group holds in Syria, a US-backed militia says. A Syrian Democratic Forces commander said the jihadists were caught overnight as they attempted to slip out of Baghuz with the help of smugglers. Hundreds of others have surrendered and been evacuated from the village with thousands …

The US goods trade deficit has surged to a record high in 2018 as strong domestic demand fuelled by lower taxes pulled in imports, despite the Trump administration’s America First policies. President Donald Trump pledged on both the campaign trail and as president to reduce the deficit by shutting out more unfairly traded imports and renegotiating free trade agreements. The …

Australia’s standard of living has fallen to levels not seen since the 1991-92 recession, despite labour productivity increasing “dramatically” and the nation producing more billionaires than ever before. A report by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) confirms living costs outstripped household incomes “by 2.9 per cent over the last three years”, and Australia is at risk of becoming …

Business alarmed as Shorten flags ‘living wage’ to replace minimum wage The small and medium business sectors have expressed concern after Opposition leader Bill Shorten all but confirmed he will boost the minimum wage to a “living wage” should he win the next election. Speaking to The Australian Financial Review Business Summit at which he declared the election to be …

President Donald Trump announced the congressional questioning last week of his former lawyer may have contributed to the failure of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – even as his national security advisor claimed the Hanoi meeting was a success. A high-stakes second summit to strike a disarmament deal with Kim broke up in disarray in Vietnam …

A man who says he was molested by George Pell when he was a boy in the 1970s will file a lawsuit against the disgraced cardinal in Victoria’s Supreme Court. The suit, expected to be lodged this week, names Pell, the trustees of the Sisters of Nazareth (formerly St Joseph’s), the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the State of Victoria. …

The promotion of a seventh woman to Cabinet has failed to quell debate about quotas to boost the number of women in the Liberal Party. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he’s committed to boosting female representation in the Liberal Party, as government frontbenchers try to play down debate about introducing quotas. Liberal powerbroker Alex Hawke reignited the debate on Sunday, …