Free thinking. Straight talking. Explore more opinion from the nation’s leading comment writers. | | The youngest victim of the Bondi terror attack has been named as 10-year-old Matilda |  | Andrea Hamblin In Sydney, Australia | Bondi Beach is eerily quiet this morning. Discarded shoes, goggles, towels and children’s toys lay in the sand, a reminder of the moment terrified families ran for their lives yesterday as a father and son opened fire on Jews celebrating Hanukkah.
They murdered 15 people. The youngest victim, Matilda, was just 10 years old. Among the other innocent lives lost was a Holocaust survivor who died protecting his wife and a British-born rabbi who had flown to Australia to ask the government to do more to stop anti-Semitism.
Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50, have been named as the terror suspects responsible for the attack. Police shot both men. The elder Akram died at the scene, while his son remains in hospital under police guard.
| Naveed Akram, one of the alleged shooters | After the attack, officers recovered a black and white Islamic State (IS) flag in a car linked to the men as they searched the vehicle for explosives.
At a memorial where mourners prayed and laid flowers, amid the tears and disbelief, there was an undercurrent of anger that warnings about growing threats to Jewish lives since the Oct 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel had been downplayed.
There are searching questions, too, for police and ASIO, the Australian spy agency. Among them: why did they not keep a closer watch on a suspect reportedly investigated over concerns he had been radicalised by a terror group?
Naveed, a recently unemployed bricklayer, had been added to a watchlist in 2019 and was believed to have pledged allegiance to the IS terrorist group. “He was examined on the basis of being associated with others, and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, confirmed.
ASIO and local police have confirmed that he was “known” to them but they did not consider him an “immediate” threat. His father, a small business owner, was licensed to own six guns despite Australia’s strict gun laws.
The pair had told their family that they were on a beach holiday. Instead, they rented an AirBnB in southwest Sydney before driving to Australia’s most famous beach to carry out their terror plans.
The pair were armed with at least three long-arm rifles and homemade explosive devices when they opened fire from a footbridge above families gathered to celebrate Hanukkah and a child’s bar mitzvah.
New South Wales state officials confirmed they would consider firearms reforms, as Mr Albanese promised he would eradicate the “scourge” of anti-Semitism.
Mr Albanese has convened an urgent national cabinet meeting for this afternoon to ensure federal, state and territory governments are “completely on the same page” with firearms legislation.
“If there’s more that can be done, we will do it. We will do whatever is necessary,” he said.
But critics say it is too little, too late.
Read more of our coverage here:
Bondi Beach gunman ‘pledged allegiance to Islamic State’ – follow live ➤
Ten minutes, two gunmen and one hero: How Bondi Beach bloodbath unfolded ➤
David Wolfson: Jews like me have been warning about an attack like this for years ➤
Israeli fury over failure to stop Bondi Beach massacre ➤
Michael Vaughan: I was close enough to hear Bondi shootings, it was terrifying ➤ | | Annabel Denham Reacting with feigned horror to selective memories of teenage banter is no substitute for putting their own house in order Continue reading ➤ James Johnson Trump has become a victim of his own success Continue reading ➤ Jane Shilling Chronic Christmas unreadiness has begun Continue reading ➤ | Get the full experience. Unlock our award-winning website, app and newsletters. | | The primary school application deadline (Jan 15 2026) is looming. You can use our school league table to help with one of the most important decisions you can make for your child. The schools are ranked using a unique 40-point scoring system, which is based on nine separate criteria measuring academic, behavioural and organisational performance. Continue reading ➤ | | | Jack Rear (centre) hopes his Christmas with friends will be a sparkling, carefree affair | | Tired of the blazing political rows and constant eye-rolling at his annual family gathering, writer Jack Rear has had enough. This year, he is swapping the family get-together for a “Friendsmas” involving an 8ft tree and enough champagne to fill the Nile. However, with worries about the turkey not fitting in the oven, his escape plan is proving more stressful than anticipated. Continue reading ➤ | | | Justin Bieber has vented to his 90 million social media followers about tweaks to Apple’s iPhone software, and his is just one of thousands of voices that have begun to express their discontent. James Titcomb, our Technology Editor, explains why things are getting worse. Continue reading ➤ | | | In 2006, Jo Hill was putting her daughter’s bag in the boot of her car when another car drove into her. She suffered permanent damage to her spine and limbs, and Hill endured her disability for years before, in 2011, finding Canine Partners, one of the charities supported by The Telegraph’s Christmas Appeal. Now, Barry the labrador acts as part butler, part carer, and has transformed her life entirely.
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The Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal 2025 ➤ | | | Hercules the bear celebrates his 10th birthday with his owners, Andy and Maggie. The trio spent 25 years together | | For 25 years, Maggie Robin shared her Scottish home with a charismatic wrestler 16 years her senior – and an apex predator. “It was different days then,” she tells Kay Ribeiro, as an eye-popping new BBC documentary revisits her life alongside the boisterous, Babycham-swigging Hercules. “We couldn’t do now what we did with Herc – you can’t do anything today without offending someone.” Continue reading ➤ | | | They’re inexpensive, convenient and keep for an age – yes, tinned soups can be lifesavers when the fridge shelves are bare. Even so, how many acidity regulators and preservatives are you willing to swallow in your cream of tomato? Annie Bell reveals the healthiest (and unhealthiest) supermarket tinned soups, including one tin with sugar content equivalent to three digestive biscuits.
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Below are two more articles that I hope will improve your Monday:
- Will you be hosting this Christmas? There are few more hectic times in the social calendar, but this pared-back, Scandinavian approach ensures cooking stresses are kept to a minimum.
- It can be difficult to find a place to ski that isn’t thronging with tourists at this time of year. Les Sybelles has managed to fly under the radar – here’s why you should go.
|  | Matt Pritchett Cartoonist | Hello,
For today’s caption contest, you have a sign to complete. Submit a caption for me here. I’m excited to hear your thoughts.
We also have our winner from last week below.
A lot of you entered similar captions this week, riffing on Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit It’s My Party. I hadn’t thought about that at all, so it was a real delight when they all came through. Fastest to the trigger was Navs Nagar. Congratulations! As always, I’ll be answering your questions on the Your Say page, so please enter some for me!
P.S. For an inside look at what inspires my weekly cartoons, you can sign up to my personal subscriber-exclusive newsletter here. | Are you more of a Palatino or Perpetua? Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
It has long been thought that handwriting can provide an insight into a person’s character – which perhaps explains why anyone who sees mine automatically starts backing away. But what about your choice of font? Given that most of us now type far more words than we write out, it’s surely the more pertinent question, and I enjoyed Christopher Howse’s ruminations on the theme. Are you partial to Perpetua, or do you dabble with Jokerman, despite having left primary school many decades ago?
To be fair, that would be a thrilling act of rebellion for me. My wife is a graphic designer, so certain style are expressly forbidden at home. I’ve always tended to go for Times New Roman, which just about passes muster, even if it scores pitifully low on imagination.
Stella Russell, by contrast, “always used Arial for work emails and presentations when the subject was complex or technical, as I think it made the text more comprehensible. It’s also uncluttered, which is good for slides. I like the look of Perpetua, though – nice detailing without looking as dated as Times New Roman”.
Stephen Bloor was one of many readers who put in a word for “Tahoma. A simple and elegant typeface.”
Steve McConnell “always thought Helvetica was the one the cool kids used. I feel I might be about a decade out of date on that, though.”
Mark Cotter adds: “I nearly always use Gill Sans, and have done for over 20 years. I prefer a sans-serif font as I like the clean modernism of it. Before Gill, I used Helvetica.”
The pro-serif case came from Vivian Chapman: “With Arial, for instance, you can’t tell the difference between an upper-case i and a lower-case l.” What’s your favourite font? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. | |
A fragment of the ‘Victory Jack’ flown from Nelson’s HMS Victory is the star piece in January’s auction of memorabilia from the Battle of Trafalgar. How much is it expected to fetch? | | Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was DEXTERITY. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. | |
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