Opinion

BEN HARVEY: Getting the $3.1 billion deal over the line was hard; getting any kind of return on investment will be harder. 

LATIKA M BOURKE: It was surely a disappointing day for those who have exploited the US President’s style in a campaign to cool the alliance.

Johnny Depp has booked his first studio movie since being fired by Warner Bros after a UK court found in favour of a newspaper which alleged he was a ‘wife beater’. Is this the comeback the world wants?

EMMA FREEDMAN: Via Sistina can follow in a long list of great horses, as we bid farewell to one of the great race tracks on Saturday.

EDITORIAL: He stepped off his RAAF jet at Sydney Airport clad in a shirt from English postpunks Joy Division. This was Anthony Albanese wearing what he wanted to wear. Because who is going to stop him? 

Michael Vaughan knows how to stir a headline, and suggesting Mitch Marsh opens in the Ashes feels more like playful mischief than genuine advice.

MARK RILEY: Despite Sussan Ley’s demands, there’s no chance Anthony Albanese will sack Kevin Rudd.

AARON PATRICK: A working mother’s win against Westpac shows just how far the pendulum has swung against employers.

North Melbourne are on the brink of something special — but if we’re going to celebrate it, let’s do it properly. 

KIERSTEN DUKE: A horse’s health should always be paramount, but Racing Victoria needs to reveal more when they make big calls like they have on Gai Waterhouse-trained thoroughbred Sir Delius.

EDITORIAL: The Albanese Government wants to introduce yet more layers of bureaucracy and red tape that our mining industry does not need.

JENI O’DOWD: Our country should be impossible to stuff up. Yet we are creating a nation of haves and have-nots where owning a house will be dependent on your parents’ wealth.

LISA STHALEKAR: The fans came in their droves, just not to see the Australian stars.

DANE ELDRIDGE: It’s been a long time between drinks for our English cousins as they thirst for success by talking a good game before an Ashes ball has been bowled.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Spanish has become a sanctioned indicator of potential criminality in the United States. The world’s fourth most spoken tongue has been deemed the sound of bad hombres in our midst.