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The Sydney Morning Herald

Breaking news from Sydney, Australia and the world. Features the latest business, sport, entertainment, travel, lifestyle, and technology news.

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Featured Writers

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Meg Kanofski

Meg Kanofski is social media editor at the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Sarah McInerney

Journalist, editor, copywritersarahmariemcinerney@gmail.com

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Katie Cincotta

Katie Cincotta began as the national writer for television game show Sale of the Century, and went on to be a magazine editor before starting her own freelance writing business. …

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Heidi Vogt

Writer Editor Journalist

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Petra Stock

Petra Stock is an award-winning freelance journalist, specialising in science, technology, education and climate change. Her portfolio includes news, magazine and online features, explainers, investigations and podcasts, with stories published …

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Jade Martin

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Latest Articles

Another day, another TikTok video pointing out more ways in which us Millennials are cringe

What started out with shots about our skinny jeans, side-parts and use of laugh-cry emojis has snowballed into a laundry list of jibes from Gen Z. Another day, another TikTok video pointing out more ways in which us Millennials are cringe.
By Emily McGrorey
• The Sydney Morning Herald

The untold story of the Australians who helped fight Franco

HISTORY Anti-Fascists: Jim McNeill and his mates in the Spanish Civil WarMichael SamarasConnor Court Publishing, $39.95Doubtless European leaders today use the Spanish Civil War as a lesson to harden resolve against Vladimir Putin and Russia. Like Ukraine, the Spanish War came to represent a global struggle against authoritarianism. The Western …
By Kurt Johnson
• The Sydney Morning Herald

The alarming letter that made the premier change his mind

An urgent document exposing the presence of a deadly synthetic drug 100 times more powerful than heroin in NSW pushed Chris Minns to launch the state’s landmark pill testing trial months after he ruled out the move.In a letter delivered to Minns and Health Minister Ryan Park, co-chairs of the …
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

The digital age is a pain in the digit – and my texting thumb is over it

While I was grabbing the peanut butter the other day, a sharp pain shot through some obscure tendons in my thumb, making me shriek. A preliminary Google revealed that I’d acquired the embarrassingly 21st-century ailment of “texting thumb”, also known as de Quervain’s tenosynovitis, which should be reserved for a …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Hold my (zero proof) beer ... meet the new generation of booze-free blokes

Now that it’s over, I’m officially calling it – this was the summer when Aussies finally ordered last drinks on our toxic drinking culture. Big call? Maybe. But (as the kids would say) there’s definitely been a “vibe shift”.Mine was a typical Millennial summer, chock-full of Christmas parties, lawn bowls, …
By Hannah Vanderheide
• The Sydney Morning Herald

We’re becoming dumb and dumber – welcome to the idiocracy

In news that won’t shock anyone who engages with comments on social media or Married at First Sight, human intelligence is declining. The Financial Times reported the downward trend of literacy and numeracy in both kids and adults, as found by the OECD. It appears to be “a broader erosion …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Snappy dialogue and unlucky-in-love protagonist? It must be chick lit

ROMCOMBest, First and LastAmy MatthewsSimon & Schuster, $32.99Amy Matthew’s Best, First and Last has all the ingredients for a good chick lit: exotic location (Peru), a grieving granny who carries around (and chats to) her dead husband’s ashes, uses the words “sexting” and “catching feeling”, snappy dialogue that would put …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Here’s my truth: I’m sick of other people’s ‘truths’

If you’re playing Married at First Sight bingo this year, by which, every time an inane word or phrase is spouted by a participant, such as “gaslighting”, “walls up” or “being on the show for the right reasons”, it’s time to yell, “bingo”.But I’d like to propose a new addition …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

According to Oprah, it’s life-altering. So what is the ‘let them’ theory?

From looksmaxxing to gross girls, TikTok has introduced us to many new ideas, many of them questionable. However, more recently, it’s given us the “let them” theory, and I’m as surprised as anyone to say it’s actually taught me something of significance.
By Emily McGrorey
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Closing the gender gap’s a real pain. Period

At the chemist the other day, I noticed a large display for Nurofen; a stand packed with painkillers, announcing they are “Committed to closing the gender pain gap”. I paused, wondering what this “pain gap” is. Are they lobbying for men to experience period pain by having their lower torso …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Banning G-strings at public pools is a bummer for some, but it’s the right move

While strolling through sunny markets with my five-year-old daughter last week, we encountered a bare bum. Bare bums aren’t an anomaly in my kids’ lives; quite the opposite. They’re an endless source of fascination, whether it’s your brother’s plump cheeks ripe for whacking, improving your flatuosity or de-panting to run …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Volatile yet prosperous: Gains on the horizon as ASX readies for Trump 2.0

Economists and market watchers have forecast positive, yet volatile growth for the Australian sharemarket under a second Trump administration. Potential tariffs and an ensuing trade war are among the uncertainties that could pose serious risks to an improving economy.US President-elect Donald Trump has flagged a broad range of economic policies …
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

No, you can’t have my number. We’re not in a relationship

I’m waiting in line at JB Hi-Fi Albury to buy a cord to connect my phone to the car so we can listen to podcasts on our road trip. “I’ll just grab your phone number so we can send you a digital receipt,” the cashier says. “Um, no thanks,” I …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Top doctor raises alarm as Sydney vapers develop opioid addiction

The state’s top doctor pushed Premier Chris Minns to consider drug responses beyond pill-testing after young people in Sydney unknowingly inhaled synthetic opioids through vapes.Minns last month announced NSW would hold its first pill-testing trial following recommendations from his government’s drug summit.The trial was scheduled to begin in early 2025. …
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

On our next road trip, Bluey can babysit the kids for the whole 900km

Travelling interstate in a car with small children over the summer holidays is not for the faint-hearted, but some of us rise to the challenge. Sure, you could fly the 90-minute trip in an air-conditioned plane, but who wants to be stuck with a bunch of strangers giving the passive-aggressive …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Sex merchants have hijacked Christmas. Does Santa really need to be ‘weirdly hot’?

As Mariah Carey once again defrosts to bring All I Want for Christmas is You into every shopping centre, there’s something else that’s warming up. Netflix is trying to bring sexy back to Christmas with not one but two Hallmark-style films featuring shirtless, buff men, including one snowman and a …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

They topped the HSC over the past 40 years. Where are they now?

Unlike her fellow school-leavers in 1984, Cindy Pan did not learn of her HSC mark through the post.It was her headmistress who broke the news, sharing that her final exam score of 475 out of a possible 500 marks was the best among her Abbotsleigh cohort, and that she would …
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Is our language going down the toilet? My word!

I’m no linguistic purist. My brother and I exclaim “YOLO!” (you only live once) to each other, as in, “I backed into our neighbour’s car, and we didn’t realise our insurance had expired, YOLO!” Or: “Modern life is exhausting. My brain feels like a lab rat owned by sadistic scientists …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Alexei Navalny’s memoir is a reminder of literature’s true purpose

The West’s Alexei Navalny is a sketch joining three data points: his miraculous survival from poisoning, his return to Russia and his death in prison. To Putin, he was another Rasputin who bewitched Russia with the promise of democracy and survived the Kremlin’s attempts to poison, smear and assassinate. Until …
By Kurt Johnson
• The Sydney Morning Herald

In a silently uploaded document, a major Sydney intersection lost its upgrade

Two senior ministers were told that plans to slash promised upgrades to road, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure at a key Sydney intersection would have “minimal impact” on transport in the inner city, despite the now-abandoned proposal erasing 85 per cent of planned improvements.
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

From brunch to living in a war zone: how war upended a writer’s life

In an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Oleksandr Mykhed frames the Russian invasion of Ukraine not as belligerent power play or geopolitical stunt but an outright assault on Ukraine’s very existence.The passage begins with a dream Mykhed has one night, a “whimsical homage” to Catcher in the …
By Kurt Johnson
• The Sydney Morning Herald

Steely Dan and Taxi Driver: Meet the 21-year-olds obsessed with the 1970s

Jose Da Costa and Shankari Kathirgamalingam were discussing their favourite Steely Dan tunes when they had an idea: they should start a club for young people like them to celebrate the music, fashion and literature of the 1970s in all their glory.
By Daniel Lo Surdo
• The Sydney Morning Herald

At school, they advised me to become a vet. They were so wrong

In year 12, my exasperated careers adviser tried to cobble together ideas for me based on my stated interest, “animals” (because “the Mars vending machine” and “Orlando Bloom” were apparently unhelpful). He suggested I could be a vet.After a dismal work placement emptying bloodied syringes and cleaning up dog poo …
By Cherie Gilmour
• The Sydney Morning Herald