Julie Fragar has won the $100,000 Archibald Prize with her portrait of fellow artist Justene Williams.

The winning work is titled Flagship Mother Multiverse (Justene), and is painted in grayscale, showing the artist floating among the stars.

The title comes from Williams’ recent endurance performance in New Zealand – Making do rhymes with poo – about the labour of juggling a day job with art making and motherhood. 

The winner was selected from 903 entries and 57 finalists, with entries painted in the past year from at least one live sitting.

The award, widely regarded as Australia’s most prestigious art prize, is judged by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Jude Rae has won the $50,000 Wynne Prize for landscape painting or sculpture, for the oil on linen work Pre-dawn sky over Port Botany container terminal.

The $40,000 Sulman Prize for genre painting went to Katoomba-based artist Gene A’Hern for Sky painting, beating a record field of 732 entries.

Maud Page, who was announced in March as the new director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, has congratulated all of the artists who entered the 2025 awards.

For the first time in 2025, women artists made up the majority of finalists in each of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize competitions.

Earlier in May, the $3000 Packing Room Prize selected by the gallery’s art handling staff went to Abdul Abdullah for a portrait of his friend Jason Phu.

The finalists for all three prizes will be on show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from Saturday until August 17, before touring Victoria and NSW.

Blood is being spilled across the political aisle as party leaderships are on the table and powerbrokers carve up the spoils of victory.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has officially announced her tilt at the leadership, confirming she will put herself forward to refresh a decimated party.

The Liberals will meet in Canberra on Tuesday to choose a new leader, with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor also courting colleagues for the top job.

“I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia,” Ms Ley told Seven’s Sunrise on Friday.

Ms Ley acknowledged the Liberals suffered a significant defeat and needed to “meet the Australian people where they are, because clearly we didn’t do that at the last election”.

The bloodletting continues ahead of Tuesday’s meeting as the coalition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defected from sitting with the National Party to the Liberals.

As a Country Liberal Party senator from the Northern Territory, she can choose to sit in either partyroom but the spot has historically sided with the Nationals.

Her colleagues have expressed disappointment as it means the loss of a Nationals senator takes the party below the five needed in the Senate to receive entitlements offered to larger parties.

Queensland MP Michelle Landry branded it disloyal.

“We’re all very upset that she’s decided to move over to the Liberals and I just think that there’s a lack of loyalty there,” she told ABC radio.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie accused the Liberals of actively recruiting Senator Nampijinpa Price five days out from an election.

“That is not the behaviour of trusted partners,” she told Sky News.

“I’ve been on the phone late into last night with territorians in the CLP very concerned about this decision and what it means for them and their representation.”

People who ran under one party and then jumped ship when they were elected should be disendorsed and run under their own banner, Ms Landry said.

Senator Price is rumoured to be pushing for the deputy Liberal leadership under Mr Taylor but hasn’t officially confirmed a tilt.

“To be quite honest, it is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected (in 2022) … and chose at that time that I needed to sit in the National partyroom,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB.

Tony Abbott had spoken to her and supported the move, she said.

Despite its landslide win, Labor hasn’t emerged unscathed in the election aftermath with a brutal move from internal powerbrokers resulting in two cabinet ministers being dumped to make way for fresh faces.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic were axed from the ministry as Labor’s more progressive left and more conservative right factions carved up the 30 spots.

Mr Dreyfus will be replaced in the ministry by Victorian MP Sam Rae, a factional ally of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles who hails from the same state.

Mr Husic was dumped to rebalance the ledger between the NSW and Victorian right with the former over represented in cabinet as spots are decided on a proportional basis between factions and states.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the government had to “balance stability with some renewal”, acknowledging it was tough for the two senior MPs.

“But that’s how democratic processes work,” he told ABC TV.

Labor senators Jess Walsh and Tim Ayres will also be promoted.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address caucus on Friday where the ministerial nominations will be rubber-stamped.

Mr Albanese will then allocate portfolios over the weekend ahead of the ministry being sworn in on Tuesday.

The Australian Catholic community is welcoming news of the election of American Robert Francis Prevost as the Pope, saying it represents a momentous event in the life of the church. 

Cardinal Prevost will be known by the name Leo XIV and is the first American to be appointed to the papacy. 

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe offered the Catholic church in Australia’s heartfelt congratulations. 

“Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru,” Archbishop Costelloe said. 

“He will be warmly welcomed by the Church in Latin America, as Pope Francis was, by the Church in the United States from where he comes, from the English-speaking world as a native English speaker, and from the whole Church as a man of God steeped in the rich spirituality of his Augustinian Religious Order.”

Archbishop Costelloe said the new Pope would guide the Church with renewed hope and strength.

“Recent Popes have sought ways to be of service to the wider Christian family and we can expect that Pope Leo XIV will follow this same path. 

Catholic Social Services Australia executive director Jerry Nockles said Pope Leo’s appointment came at a critical time when the world yearned for compassionate leadership grounded in gospel values of justice, dignity and solidarity with the vulnerable. 

“At a time when Australia and indeed the world faces unprecedented social challenges – from growing inequality to escalating violence and social division – Pope Leo’s election offers a beacon of hope and a powerful reminder that the church stands firmly for peace and with those on the margins,” Dr Nockles said. 

“His voice will undoubtedly challenge us all to build a more just and peaceful society where every person’s dignity is honoured, and peace is actively pursued.”

Cardinal Mykola Bychok was the sole Australian representative at the conclave in Rome. 

Archbishop Costelloe and Sale Bishop Greg Bennet have indicated they will travel to Rome for the installation representing the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and the church in Australia.

More online criminals are weaponising artificial intelligence to steal from Australian businesses, including using the technology to create deepfakes of employees’ voices and appearance.

Small and medium-sized businesses were at highest risk from the emerging trend, but almost all Australian organisations had encountered AI-based online attacks over the past year, a report has found.

Security firm SoSafe has released the findings in its Cybercrime Trends report, which also found Australia is one of the nations most often targeted by AI-generated attacks.

The warnings come one month after some of the nation’s biggest superannuation firms were hit with a co-ordinated online attack that saw $750,000 stolen from personal accounts.

Sydney animal vaccine firm Virbac has been regularly targeted by hackers who use AI to create realistic invoices.

Chris Mousley, a supply chain analytics specialist at the firm, said Virbac had been forced to educate staff and change its process for paying suppliers to avoid being robbed by cyber criminals.

“I get at least five to 10 of these a month and they’re extremely convincing commercial documents that look like pro-forma invoices,” Mr Mousley said.

“These are very specific documents and they’re AI-generated to look like companies we would deal with.”

The fake invoices were often for specific raw materials, he said, which indicated criminals were specifically targeting the firm and its industry.

AI software was not only being used to improve the grammar and apparent legitimacy of email scams, but to craft targeted and sophisticated attacks across different platforms, SoSafe human-centric security advocate Jacqueline Jayne said.

“We’ve had deepfakes using people’s voices to pretend to be someone on the phone and it is incredibly difficult, unless you have a code word, to be able to tell are we talking to (a colleague) or is this someone pretending to be her,” she said.

“It’s getting harder and harder to pick the difference.”

The Cybercrime Trends report, released in Friday, was prepared by research firm Censuswide and surveyed 500 IT workers across nine countries.

Despite their prevalence, only one-in-four IT workers rated their ability to detect AI-based attacks as “high”.

Most Australian organisations had experienced attacks delivered to workers’ personal devices such as phones and laptops, the report found.

Companies were also targeted by “multi-channel attacks” that used their email and social media accounts, messaging apps and voice calls.

Educating employees in how to detect deepfake scams would be vital to shutting down the attacks, particularly in small and medium-sized businesses that often did not deploy the same level of cybersecurity, Ms Jayne said.

“We’re going to see more AI-assisted and driven attacks in Australia and globally,” she told AAP.

“One way to address it is to think about what humans are doing, how they’re responding to (attacks), and how we can help them to think before they do anything.”

Companies needed to educate staff in how to scrutinise incoming communication carefully, Mr Mousley said.

This included looking for hints such as misspellings and different payment methods, and running credit checks on local firms.

“You can’t be complacent,” he said.

“We didn’t get any of these 12 months ago.”

New faces will be welcomed to the fold as Labor politicians come together for the first time since their emphatic victory at the federal election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday after his party’s landslide win.

The scale of the success has taken even senior Labor ministers by surprise, lending to a buoyant feeling among the party’s members.

A record number of women will be taking their seats in parliament, with women to outnumber men in the Labor partyroom.

At least 46 seats will be held by women in the Labor government out of a total of 150 in the House of Representatives.

More than a dozen new MPs will join the ranks after Labor increased its seats from 77 to at least 90 as the count continues.

Australian National University political historian Frank Bongiorno said Labor hadn’t had a victory this size since 1943.

“It’s a remarkable opportunity for the government to craft a legacy, which could extend even beyond this term,” he said.

“Governments don’t normally extend their majorities … you normally win your first election reasonably comfortably, and then you begin burning political capital straight away in that first term, and then often have to scrape a win the second time round.”

New Dickson MP Ali France has been hailed a “Labor legend” after she became the first person to unseat an opposition leader at an election with her defeat of Peter Dutton.

Former Tasmanian state opposition leader Rebecca White’s victory in Lyons has her among the contenders to be elevated to the ministry, expected to be unveiled on Monday ahead of a swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

The depleted Liberals will hold a partyroom meeting on Tuesday to pick their new leader with Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley looming as the leading candidates.

Attracting women voters and candidates has been a major issue for the coalition.

The new women joining Labor’s ranks were to the party’s “major political advantage”, Professor Bongiorno said.

“We know that there will be women at the table, at the cabinet table, there’ll be women there in caucus when issues come up that are of particular interest to women,” he said.

“We know that women’s voices and women’s agency will be there.”

US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have announced a “breakthrough deal” on trade that leaves in place a 10 per cent tariff on goods imported from the United Kingdom while the UK agreed to lower its tariffs to 1.8 per cent from 5.1 per cent and provide greater access to US goods.

The agreement announced by Trump from the Oval Office marked the first since Trump triggered a global trade war with a barrage of levies on trading partners following his return to the White House in January.

“It opens up a tremendous market for us,” Trump said.

“This is a really fantastic, historic day,” Starmer said by teleconference.

The United States has been under pressure from investors to strike deals to de-escalate its tariff war after Trump’s often chaotic policymaking up-ended global trade with friends and foe alike, threatening to stoke inflation and start a recession.

Top US officials have engaged in a flurry of meetings with trading partners since the president on April 2 imposed a 10 per cent tariff on most countries, along with higher rates for many trading partners that were then suspended for 90 days.

The US has also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on autos, steel and aluminium, 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 145 per cent tariffs on China. 

US and Chinese officials are due to hold talks in Switzerland on Saturday.

With the UK economy struggling to grow, the tariffs had added to the pressure on his government.

Jaguar Land Rover paused its shipments to the US for a month and the government was forced to seize control of British Steel to keep it operating.

While seeking a deal with the US, the UK had refused to lower its food standards, which are closely aligned with the European Union. 

However, the UK’s farming trade union has said that some US producers who do not use growth hormones or antimicrobial washes could be given greater market access.

The status of the 10 per cent “baseline” tariff was unclear, as was a threatened tariff on the pharmaceutical industry which could damage AstraZeneca and GSK.

Initial news of an announcement sent shares in luxury car maker Aston Martin up 10 per cent while UK retailers with operations in the US including JD Sports and Primark owner AB Foods also rose.

Starmer’s government has been seeking to build new trading relationships post-Brexit with the US, China and the European Union without moving so far towards one bloc that it angers the others.

Economists and one FTSE 100 chief executive said the immediate economic effect of a tariff deal was likely to be limited but that trade agreements in general would help long-term growth. 

The UK struck a free trade agreement with India this week.

The Bank of England is cutting its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25 per cent amid concerns over the potential shock to global growth emanating from the tariff policies of the Trump administration.

The decision on Thursday was widely expected, though there was an array of opinion on the nine-member monetary policy committee, with two voting for a bigger half-point cut to four per cent, and two voting to hold rates.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey said inflationary pressures had continued to ease, paving the way for the fourth quarter-point rate cut since August.

The bank believed tariff increases by the US and other countries would weigh somewhat on British economic growth and push down on inflation, but stressed the outlook was unclear.

“The past few weeks have shown how unpredictable the global economy can be,” he said.

“That’s why we need to stick to a gradual and careful approach to further rate cuts. Ensuring low and stable inflation is our top priority.”

The decision is the first since US President Donald Trump made his tariff announcement in early April.

Though most tariffs were paused for 90 days following the ensuing market turmoil, including the 10 per cent baseline tariff applied to UK goods entering the US, the backdrop for the global economy remains highly uncertain.

Some of that uncertainty, with regard to the British economy, could be lifted later on Thursday when details of a trade deal between the US and the UK are announced.

At the very least, they are expected to lower the tariff burden.

Though the tariff burden may be eased, the biggest uncertainty facing the global economy is the potential for a US-China trade war, which would dampen economic growth everywhere.

The rate cut comes despite expectations that inflation will rise further above the bank’s two per cent target in coming months, from the current 2.6 per cent as a result of a raft of price increases in April, such as domestic energy and water bills, and firms passing on tax rises to consumers.

“While headline inflation is expected to rise in the near-term, we do not expect that to persist,” said Bailey, adding it would be back around target in two years’ time.

Unlike the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, which in April also cut interest rates, the US Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday as its policymakers wait to see how Trump’s tariffs affect the US economy before making any moves.

World shares have inched higher, buoyed by US President Donald Trump’s promise of a first trade deal in his global tariff war – tipped to be Britain – while the dollar gained as markets pushed out the chance of near-term Fed rate cuts.

Traders were also limbering up for an expected Bank of England quarter-point rate cut later on Thursday.

Sweden and Norway had already left their rates steady, but both hinted at future cuts given all the global uncertainty.

Europe’s main stock markets opened higher, led by a one per cent rise from Germany’s export-heavy DAX and a 0.3 per cent gain for London’s FTSE, plus a similar lift for sterling against the euro, on the trade deal signals.

US President Donald Trump posted on social media that he would hold an Oval Office media conference on a “major trade deal with representatives of a big, and highly respected, country”.

Wall Street futures were up nearly one per cent, too, but economists are eager to see the deal’s details later and whether the baseline 10 per cent tariff Trump has slapped on all countries up until now can be negotiated away.

Investors are also anxiously awaiting planned talks between US and Chinese officials in Switzerland on Saturday, which could mark the first step in dialling down the damaging trade war between the world’s top two economies.

Markets were still digesting the Federal Reserve’s decision to leave US interest rates in the 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent range for a third straight meeting and its warning that the stagflationary risks of higher inflation and higher unemployment had risen.

Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed was still in “a good place” in terms of its policy, given that it was not clear if the US economy would continue its steady growth or wilt under mounting uncertainty and a possible spike in inflation.

In the bond markets, 10-year US Treasury yields edged up 2 bps at 4.29 per cent, while Germany’s 10-year yield – the euro area’s benchmark – also rose fractionally to 2.48 per cent.

The Fed’s wait-and-see message also gave the dollar index a lift.

After a brief wobble in Asia, it regained traction to sit 0.5 per cent higher in Europe at just above the psychological 100 points threshold.

Trade deal hopes also saw Britain’s pound climb as much as 0.5 per cent, although it eased back slightly to $US1.3315 as the focus turned to the Bank of England’s widely expected quarter-point rate cut later.

Overnight in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had ended down 0.3 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.4 per cent and Chinese blue chips rose 0.5 per cent as they continued to recover ground lost since Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs last month.

Wall Street had seen a late rally too after reports that the Trump administration was planning to rescind and modify a Joe Biden-era rule that curbed the export of sophisticated artificial-intelligence chips.

Nvidia shares jumped 3 per cent although Google’s parent firm Alphabet suffered a 7.2 per cent tumble on reports that Apple is readying a new artificial-intelligence enhanced web browser.

In commodities markets, the brighter trade deal sentiment lifted oil prices after they had fallen more than $US1 on Wednesday. US crude futures rose 0.7 per cent to $US58.50 a barrel while Brent was at $US61.50 per barrel, up 0.6 per cent on the day.

Gold prices rose 0.3 per cent to $US3,374.5 an ounce amid the uncertainties about Fed policy outlook, but still short of its record high of $US3,500.

Woodside’s annual general meeting has been disrupted by noisy protesters furious about a perceived lack of progress on climate change.

The oil and gas giant’s chief executive Meg O’Neill tried to drown out protesters with repeated promotional and sponsorship videos, as the activists blew high-pitched sport whistles during her opening remarks.

“We are not inclined to tolerate disruptions. We’re happy to field your questions, though we’ve got plenty of those videos,” Ms O’Neill told the meeting.

“Let’s show that (Fremantle) Dockers video again.”

The chief asked to cut to the promotional videos several times as protesters were removed.

“Well, I wish folks would have watched that video, because it really illustrates the point we’re trying to make,” Ms O’Neill said.

Woodside chair Richard Goyder later interrupted and called an end to questions on climate issues from environmental groups and concerned shareholders.

“I reckon we’ve given environmental issues a really good go today, so I’m not proposing to take any questions on that,” Mr Goyder said.

“Are there any questions from general retail shareholders in the room?”

In his opening address, Mr Goyder defended Woodside’s sustainability goals.

“We have not walked back from our climate targets and commitments,” he said.

“As outlined in our 2024 climate update, we are making good progress towards the targets we have set.” 

The Conservation Council of WA called the move to cut off environmental questions “a slap in the face to shareholders and West Australians”.

“The lack of transparency and accountability reflected Woodside’s complete disregard for the growing tide of community push-back against its ongoing pursuit of new gas developments and poor environmental track record,” executive director Matt Roberts said.

Almost 20 per cent of shareholders voted against the re-election of director Ann Pickard, who is also chair of Woodside’s sustainability committee.

Just over 15 per cent voted against the adoption of the renumeration report. 

The pattern of investor dissent indicated a serious governance problem at Woodside, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility lead analyst Alex Hillman said.

“It is time for Ann Pickard to step aside as chair of the sustainability committee – not only does she not have the support of nearly 20 per cent of investors, but she has overseen two climate plans that have failed to win the support of investors,” Mr Hillman said. 

“Alarmingly though, looking at the current board it is hard to see a director sufficiently qualified to take on this critical leadership role … which speaks to the weakness of this Woodside board on managing climate risk.”

Multiple environmental groups, proxy advisors and larger investors had called for shareholders to oppose Ms Pickard’s re-election.

Ms Pickard said the sustainability chair role wasn’t “the most popular job” and noted it would be her last term on the board.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been involved in climate change impact assessments,” she told the meeting.

“That’s one of the reasons I’ve been a big supporter of liquefied natural gas, as I see gas as a superb fuel to help transition us to a non-carbon world in the future and in the community.”

Market Forces senior analyst Brett Morgan said some investors had shown conviction by opposing Woodside’s growth strategy.

“Others are falling for corporate greenwash and failing to pressure the company to rein in its rampant expansion plans,” he said.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive David Ritter called on shareholders to reject Woodside’s plans to drill in Scott Reef off Western Australia’s coast.

He said it would turn the reef into an industrial gas zone, threatening nesting sea turtles and endangered pygmy blue whales.

In April, Woodside announced it would forge ahead with a $US17.5 billion ($A27.2 billion) Louisiana liquefied natural gas project, which it said would not impact its greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Enough wind, solar and batteries to power 2.7 millions of homes at peak generation have been given the go-ahead to connect to new power lines.

Clean energy and storage projects totalling more than 7.15 gigawatts capacity have been granted access to the renewable energy zone in NSW’s central west.

The agreements are enough to power more than half the homes in Australia’s most populous state by 2031, during peak periods, as it winds down dependence on coal.

NSW Climate Change and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone connections would secure billions of dollars of private investment.

“By unlocking new renewable capacity and enhancing battery storage, we are making our power grid more reliable and putting downward pressure on bills.”

Governments identify zones for big renewables projects to plan efficiently for the poles and wires needed to transport the electricity to homes and businesses.

Projects must have access rights before they can connect to transmission infrastructure.

NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said the new connections “miss the mark”.

“It’s all well and good to acknowledge 10 projects have now got an access agreement. But there’s no recognition of the dozens of other projects in the region that don’t, and which continue to cause anger and unrest,” he said.

He said there were somewhere between 50 and 60 projects proposed for the Central-West Orana renewable energy zone and most of those were looking at tapping into existing powerlines.

“The cumulative impact is not being taken into consideration in any way, shape, or form by this government,” he said.

Clean energy proponents celebrated Thursday’s announcement, which followed a resounding election win for Federal Labor committed to chasing its 82 per cent renewable energy target.

Climate Councillor and energy expert Greg Bourne said NSW was making progress on its energy transition by strategically building out connections between projects and transmission infrastructure via renewable energy zones. 

“Growing our wind and solar generation capacity is integral to fortifying Australia’s energy mix as polluting coal use declines,” he said.

NSW’s biggest power station, the Origin Energy-owned 2.88-gigawatt Eraring plant, was set to close this year but that was delayed for two years under a deal with the state government to avoid potential power shortages and price spikes.

The latest numbers from the Australian Energy Market Operator had renewables contributing 43 per cent of energy mix to the main grid in the first three months of 2025, up from 39 per cent over same period in 2024.