During the week Anna Alstersjö arrives at the gym between a quarter past and three quarters past five in the morning. It's not crowded, but it's not completely empty either. She assures that the early bird catches the worm, but admits that sport has led her to get up early to make the most of the day. “It bothers me when my coffee isn’t open at 6:30 AM on a Sunday,” laments this Australian-Swedish resident of Brisbane.This city marked by a river, with an average temperature between 25 and 15 degrees and named after a colonial administrator, has one of Australia's earliest economies, along with Perth, on the west coast. According to a study led by Dr. Anna Edwards, a specialist in urban planning from the University of Melbourne and founder of Ingenium Research, in these two urban centers, one out of every three hospitality establishments is open before 7 AM. In Melbourne or Sydney, only 16% and 19%, respectively."The sun rises early in Brisbane – assures Edwards, who recently presented the data from his study to a city committee–. I was there, and when I opened the curtains at 4 in the morning and looked at the river, there were people running". According to his research, between 5 am and 11 am Brisbane generates spending volumes similar to those between 7 pm and midnight.But it is not an exception. In Adelaide in 2021, two friends started Salty Sips, a free beach yoga session that includes a dip in the ocean and brings together hundreds of people every Wednesday. At 6:30 a.m. yoga class and at 7 a.m., a dip. In Melbourne and Sydney, early mornings are filled with people running along the coast in a running club –with their posts on the Strava app –, swimming pools are filled with fast and slow lane swimmers, 24-hour gyms have proliferated, the Saint Judes cafe hosts members of a retired cyclists' club, and even a grandmother with her mobile phone at full blast does tai chi in a nearby alley.On the other hand, in cities like Paris, only 3% of hotels open before 7 a.m., and after 7 a.m. 14%, while in Amsterdam only 7% open before 8 a.m., a figure that in London rises to 24%, as reported by the study carried out in more than 7,800 establishments in 20 cities worldwide. While in Brisbane or Perth one out of every three establishments has raised the shutters before 7 a.m., in Barcelona's Raval this happens from 9 a.m. onwards.Among the possible causes are the temperate climate of the Australian coast in a country where almost 90% of the population lives less than 50 kilometers from the sea, the interest in outdoor physical activity in parks and coastal areas or beaches, while there are different schedules than those in Catalonia: in Sydney it is complicated to find a table after 9 in the evening because the kitchen is often closed. On the other hand, coffee culture is part of the country's personality to the point that the Australian football team has taken a person who is dedicated to preparing them coffee during the World Cup."Younger generations are more interested in health and a healthy lifestyle, they drink less than before," says Edwards. Trends that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has managed to collect. Young people between 19 and 24 years old who claim to drink daily have decreased for the first time since 2010, while, according to data collected through smartwatches, the practice of intense sports among the population is increasing.Edwards noticed the morning economy after consultant Ivan Power published a text on LinkedIn stating that “tea and coffee lubricate social life as much as beer, wine or spirits”. Power's idea that now even some business meetings (or first dates) happen over breakfast has been best synthesized by the mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner, in the presentation of the annual budgets: “While in Europe they embrace the night, in Brisbane we embrace the dawn”.Although the morning economy provides more “flexibility” for participating in social activities, Edwards recalls that cities already have a 24-hour economy. In fact, up to four million Australians work shifts between six in the evening and six in the morning, and as the researcher acknowledges, the challenge is to “understand what already exists and then make adjustments so that things work better for everyone who uses the city at different times of the day.”But tomorrow a majority of Australians will wake up at 6.41 a.m. on average, a quarter to eight if it's the weekend. “Most of my circle doesn't wake up as early as I do. Thays and LJ [her fiancé] do, which helps – assures Anna Alstersjö from Brisbane–. It also helps that the city is prepared, with public transport that starts early and cafes open”.

The immersive exhibition created with more than 600,000 recyclable balloons will transform, starting this Thursday, the Inmersa space, located in the Poblenou neighborhood, into a large-scale visual and sensory universe. The experience promises to surprise visitors with a journey full of color, light, movement, and scenographies that turn ephemeral art into a different cultural proposal.

Nauru, a tiny island nation in the central Pacific measuring just 21 square kilometers, has become an extreme yet revealing case study of how far the contemporary redefinition of sovereignty can go. Once, this atoll represented the epitome of Polynesian paradise: a circle of white sand and palm trees where life unfolded with almost biblical self-sufficiency. Today, however, that Eden is a memory buried beneath layers of extractive history, financial corruption, and, ultimately, a disturbing redefinition of what it means to be a sovereign state in the 21st century. Nauru is no longer known for what it produces—it no longer produces anything—but for its role as a dumping ground for the crises that major powers prefer to ignore.

While the causes that led Sijeed and Naveed Akram to shoot into the crowd celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney And after the murder of fifteen people, the political pressure on Anthony Albanese has become suffocating. Amid a media and political storm from political rivals and pro-Israel organizations, the prime minister has announced new measures to reduce the number of weapons, as well as the approval of a controversial plan to combat antisemitism.

Australia began holding its first funerals on Wednesday, under heavy police guard, to bid farewell to the victims of the earthquake.The mass shooting on Sunday at Bondi Beach in eastern Sydney, targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, in which 16 people died.

The authors of the shooting at a Jewish celebration on Bondi beach, In Sydney, they may have been inspired by the Islamic State, specifically following a recent trip to the Philippines taken by the father and son, according to Australian authorities. Police also revealed that homemade explosives and two Islamic State flags were found in the son's car. Until now, Canberra had maintained that there was no indication of radicalization among the perpetrators, beyond a 2019 investigation that was later dropped.

The shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney It left an epic image: a civilian disarmed one of the attackers by grabbing him from behind, and, as authorities admitted, saved many lives. The hero is Ahmed al-Ahmad, a 43-year-old fruit vendor of Syrian origin, a father who had lived in Australia for 20 years. Several pedestrians filmed the scene, which has gone viral and already accumulated 22 million views on social media. The man was later shot four or five times in the shoulder and is recovering in the hospital, his parents, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmad and Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmad, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

8:09 p.m.: "There was a mass shooting in Bondi. The attackers opened fire on the crowd in a park where the Jewish community was celebrating the first day of Hanukkah." 8:10 p.m.: "Becca, Jake, and Tash are okay." During the hours after the murder of 15 people on Bondi beach From Sydney, thousands of messages circulated throughout the city. 10:40 p.m.: "Maurice, are you okay? I can't believe what's happened." 10:42 p.m.: "Yes, but I'm in shock." 10:45 p.m.: "And all your loved ones?" 10:50 p.m.: "Immediate family, yes, but I'm afraid of perhaps meeting someone who has died."

Jessica, 14, admits her account still works because she said she was born in 2009: "I use it to talk to my friends, if I'm interested in something, to see what people are doing..." "And you send me recipes to cook!" adds her mother, Ruth Walker. Elsa, 14, even uses Snapchat for a work group: "At my age, you start high school, you can get a job, or you can end up in juvenile detention, but you can't talk to your friends on Instagram," she complains.

Sixteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and 38 others were injured on Sunday at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. One of the shooters was among the dead, and the other was hospitalized in critical condition, police said. The target was a crowd of about 1,000 people celebrating Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday that begins with candle lighting at sunset. Counterterrorism officers are investigating the attack. Police said the attackers, who fired into the crowd from a pedestrian bridge using long guns, were a 50-year-old man (killed by police) and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, who lived in Bonnyrigg, southwest of Sydney. Authorities said one of the suspects was known to intelligence services but was not considered an "imminent threat." Shortly after the attack, several improvised explosive devices were found in a nearby vehicle.

Australia has just become the first country in the world to ban access to social media for those under 16. The diagnosis is clear: mainstream social networks have become toxic because they only seek profit at any cost, even at the expense of the physical, mental, and relational health of their users. What we reject is the business model, based on addiction and data exploitation. And therein lies the Australian mistake: instead of attacking this gravitational model that traps users, they have expelled the users themselves.

In the midst of the COP30 sessions, South Korea announced that it aims to shut down the country's 61 thermal power plants, responsible for 33% of energy production, within 15 years. The world's fourth-largest coal importer, accounting for 8% of total exports, has set closure dates for 40 power plants, with the remaining 21 slated for closure by early 2026. Kim Sung-hwan, South Korea's Minister of Climate, Energy, and Environment, stated from Brazil that the closures are not only for climate reasons but also to increase competitiveness and create thousands of jobs. South Korea is the second Asian country, after Singapore, to join the Powering Past Coal Alliance, an initiative that brings together some sixty countries, mostly developed nations. An hour after the announcement, the minister participated in an event in Belém with his Australian counterpart, Chris Bowen. Australia has seen its presence in the South Korean market reduced by competitors such as Russia and Indonesia, but it still exports almost 10% of its coal to the Asian country, with a value of around AU$2.3 billion (approximately €1.3 billion) in 2025, according to the auditor.

A balancing act between a guilty conscience, the United Kingdom's eternal interests, more closely tied than ever to the United States, and an increasingly rebellious public opinion against the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally announced this Sunday, in a pre-recorded video, the recognition of the State of Palestine, an announcement made at the same time as his counterparts from Australia and Canada, members of the Commonwealth. The announcement is part of a wave of similar pronouncements from Israel's traditional allies, which seek to halt the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of wiping the Palestinians off the map, while seeking to isolate Hamas and force it into an unconditional surrender of Gaza. Currently, 147 UN member states, including Spain, recognize Palestine. Portugal has now joined the party, and France (the other former colonial power in the Middle East), Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and possibly New Zealand and Liechtenstein will also be added.

"We have the resources and intelligence to build a more sophisticated and sustainable economy, but we're addicted to that easy life," Australian writer Tim Winton writes via email. "It's painful for me to watch," he adds. Considered a living treasure of Australia—so much so that even a species of fish bears his name—Winton criticizes the economic model of his country's western state, which has experienced a cycle of mining-based expansion since the early 2000s.

Last Friday, Australian police reported the rescue of a German tourist who had been missing for twelve days in Western Australia, a remote area teeming with wild animals and freezing temperatures at night. A hiker found the 26-year-old traveler, identified as Carolina Wilga, on a forest road in a nature reserve and contacted authorities. Once rescued, she was taken to a Perth hospital for evaluation.

In a radio interview, the Prime Minister is asked to choose an all-time hit. Anthony Albanese responds that "there is no other anthem than Am And ever gonna see your face again? ("Will I Ever See Your Face Again?" by The Angels). No one expected this response in the studio. Albanese laughs. "I'm sure almost all the listeners got the joke," he concludes confidently, "it's obvious who it's aimed at."

There's no special day for slot machines; any day is good. It's a Monday in February, and at the Seaford Hotel in Frankston—a suburb about fifty kilometers south of central Melbourne—a handful of regulars are playing after dinner. The machines are stacked in rows, each with a stool in front of them. The floor is carpeted, there are no windows or clocks, just four tables to keep the game going until late.

Apparently, the packages loaded onto the commercial planes contained thermal sheets and latex gloves, medical supplies that had to be urgently sent to Australia. But it was all a ploy to avoid ladders and checkpoints. Inside the packages, in fact, were kilograms and kilograms of powdered cocaine. If they arrived in Australia, the deal was done: there, the price of this drug increases by 1,000%. But they were caught before they sent the last shipment.

"This is nonsense, it's madness," Senator David Pocock asserted. "A country that's proud to be among the world's largest gas exporters, and yet we collect more money from students repaying their loans than from companies with the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT)."

A total of 157 whales have died or will be euthanized after being stranded on a beach in the northwest of Tasmania, an island south of Australia. Specifically, according to local authorities, they are false killer whales, a species of cetacean known for being the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. Once located, different teams made up of veterinarians expert in wild animals and marine conservationists have moved to them to try to save about 90 whales that were still surviving in the sand.