Ben Westcott

Stay informed with Ben Westcott’s coverage and analysis.

Australia’s Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley arrives with Deputy Leader of the Opposition Ted O’Brien for a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Saeed Khan / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia’s Liberal opposition elects first female leader

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese celebrates with his partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan after winning the general election at the Labor Party election night event in Sydney on May 3, 2025. Australia’s left-leaning Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claimed victory in a general election on May 3, vowing to steer the nation through a rough patch of global uncertainty. (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP) (Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia’s PM Albanese is re-elected with expanded majority

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

Pedestrians are reflected on a window as they walk past a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Stock Exchange in Sydney on April 7, 2025. Australian blue-chip stocks sank six percent after trading opened on April 7, as financial turmoil sparked by US tariffs continued to sweep through global markets. (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP) (Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia says global chaos a result of U.S.’s ‘bad decisions’

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

Peter Dutton, Australia’s opposition leader, during an event at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, March 20, 2025. Dutton said he will make his first foreign visit to the US to meet with President Donald Trump if he wins the forthcoming election, arguing the longstanding allies must deepen their relationship despite simmering tensions with the new administration. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Australian opposition dumps Trump-style return to office policy

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrives ahead of the G20 Foreign Minister Meeting at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg on February 20, 2025. Top diplomats from the Group of 20 major economies will convene in South Africa on February 20, 2025 for a meeting dominated by a packed global agenda but overshadowed by a snub by the top US envoy.<br />
As a curtain-raiser to the G20 summit in November, the foreign ministers will gather for talks over two days, held for the first time in Africa. (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP) (Photo by PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia urges universities to diversify research away from U.S.

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

SUQIAN, CHINA – NOVEMBER 20, 2024 – Illustration Tiktok, Suqian city, Jiangsu Province, China, November 20, 2024. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Meta, TikTok, Google slam Australia’s under-16 social media ban

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul

Netflix’s Tyson-Paul boxing bout gets 65 million viewers at peak

By Sohee Kim, Ben Westcott, and others

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand Prime Minister the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House on August 16, 2024.

Meta says app stores should police Australia under-16 social ban

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

The main quadrangle building of the University of Sydney, seen from the front lawns. Established in 1850, the university is the oldest in Australia and Oceania.

Just 270,000 international students will get to go to Australia next year

By Ben Westcott, Swati Pandey, and others

French President Emmanuel Macron (front) visits the central police station with France’s Minister for Interior and Overseas Gerald Darmanin (L) and France’s Minister for the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu (partially obscured) in Noumea, France’s Pacific territory of New Caledonia on May 23, 2024. France’s president made a long-haul trip to the restive Pacific territory of New Caledonia on on May 23, urging a “return to peace” after deadly rioting, and vowing thousands of military reinforcements will be deployed for “as long as necessary”. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

France lost control of parts of New Caledonia so Macron is visiting to call for a ‘return to peace’ in world’s third-largest producer of critical EV metal nickel

By Ben Westcott, Clara Ferreira Marques, and others

TOPSHOT – A car is burning on the Normandie provincial road, outside Noumea on May 16, 2024, amid protests linked to a debate on a constitutional bill aimed at enlarging the electorate for upcoming elections of the overseas French territory of New Caledonia. France deployed troops to New Caledonia’s ports and international airport, banned TikTok and imposed a state of emergency on May 16 after three nights of clashes that have left four dead and hundreds wounded. Pro-independence, largely indigenous protests against a French plan to impose new voting rules on its Pacific archipelago have spiralled into the deadliest violence since the 1980s, with a police officer among several killed by gunfire. (Photo by Delphine Mayeur / AFP) (Photo by DELPHINE MAYEUR/AFP via Getty Images)

France admits it’s lost control of parts of New Caledonia, the world’s third-largest producer of critical EV metal nickel

By Ben Westcott, Eddie Spence, and others

A man and a woman embrace at Sydney Airport

Loved ones are reunited as Australia allows foreign tourists to enter the country for the first time in almost 2 years

By Ben Westcott, Georgina Mckay, and others

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 01: Anti-vaccine protestors shout slogans following Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s speech outside the National Press Club on February 01, 2022 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Rohan Thomson/Getty Images)

Anti-vaxxers block Australia’s capital as Canada’s COVID protest mayhem goes global

By Ben Westcott and Bloomberg

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 09: A Qantas Airbus A380 aircraft called Hudson Fysh about to touch down at Sydney Airport more than 19 hours after it departed Dresden, Germany on November 09, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Originally expected to remain in long term storage in the Californian desert until the end of 2023, Qantas has since announced that five A380s with upgraded cabins would return ahead of schedule. The airline is now working to further accelerate the return of the A380s, with superjumbo flights to London brought forward to July 2022. Hudson Fysh will undergo additional maintenance checks in Australia before taking to the skies again in coming weeks as part of crew training. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

Australia will open to double-vaccinated visitors from Feb. 21, ending nearly two years of almost entirely closed borders

By Ben Westcott, Ainslie Chandler, and others