By KYLIE STEVENS, SENIOR BREAKING NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA

Published: 22:42 BST, 5 July 2026 | Updated: 23:53 BST, 5 July 2026

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised after taking part in a ‘shag, date or marry’ game during a podcast interview. 

Appearing on the Bush Deep podcast with host Nikki Osborne, Albanese was asked to play a game of ‘shag, marry or date’ involving Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Rhonda Burchmore, choosing which celebrity he would sleep with, marry or date. 

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Responding to the question, the Prime Minister said: ‘I’ve just got married. I’m only six months in.’

‘But if it goes tits up?’ Osborne hit back.

‘Kylie, clearly,’ he replied. 

‘You’d marry Kylie? And shag her? And date her?’ questioned Osborne.

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‘All of the above,’ replied Albanese. ‘She’s terrific.’

The remarks drew criticism, with some colleagues accusing the Prime Minister of resorting to ‘locker-room antics’.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised after taking part in a ‘shag, date or marry’ game during a podcast interview 

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The Prime Minister declared Kylie Minogue was ‘all of the above’

Albanese, who is currently in Fiji to sign a new treaty with the Pacific nation, apologised on Monday morning in a brief statement.

‘I apologise unequivocally for the comments,’ it read.

Independent Fowler MP Dai Le said Albanese’s remarks were ‘unbecoming of a gentleman’ and suggested he was trying to appeal to a younger generation.

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‘In parliament we’re not supposed to use certain words,’ she said.

‘I will find that very unbecoming of a gentleman, but maybe the prime minister is trying to appeal to another group, a target audience that don’t mind that kind of language being used.’

Community Strong MP Zali Steggall said it was ‘entirely inappropriate’ for the PM to respond to the question. 

‘He needs to learn to push back, lead by example and call it out as sexist,’ Steggall said.

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One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce also weighed in, describing Albanese’s remarks as ‘a bit below him’.

The Prime Minister described Aussie pop star Kylie Minogue as ‘terrific’

Albanese also opened up about his sex life with Jodie Haydon

‘There are lots of people who feel they’ve been in a very unfortunate relationship with the Prime Minister of Australia, and he doesn’t need to play a stupid game,’ Joyce said on Sunrise on Monday.

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When asked what he would have done had he been asked, Joyce replied: ‘Avoided the question, like most people.’

Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Osborne asked if Albanese and his new wife Jodie Haydon were ‘bonking like rabbits’.

‘Well, when we have time,’ he replied.

‘After the footy. It’s always a good aphrodisiac, a Souths win,’ he added, referencing the couple’s beloved NRL team.

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Residents of Guam and surrounding U.S. island territories in the western Pacific were urged to take shelter as Super Typhoon Bavi was expected to make landfall early Monday, threatening an area still recovering from another destructive storm earlier this year.

Bavi, a massive cyclone approaching the Mariana Islands east of the Philippines, was forecast to strike Rota early Monday morning local time, National Weather Service meteorologist Edwin Montvila said.

“They are currently already encountering catastrophic wind,” he said of Rota, a territory of fewer than 2,000 people northeast of Guam, adding that an extreme wind warning was in effect for the island. The cyclone is forecast to be a category five super typhoon with winds that could reach 180 miles (290 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 215 miles (346 kilometers) per hour, Montvila said.

In addition to Rota, typhoon warnings were in effect for Guam, Tinian and Saipan, while tropical storm warnings and watches were in place for other islands in the area.

The storm comes months after Super Typhoon Sinlaku, the strongest tropical cyclone this year, battered islands in the region in April, bringing ferocious winds and relentless rains. A cyclone becomes a super typhoon when it has maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or stronger.

Bavi posed an “imminent danger to life,” Montvila said, with the weather service telling residents across the islands to immediately move to interior rooms where they were sheltering and stay away from windows.

A capacity crowd welcomed David Gray into the Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Saturday (July 4), as part of his Past & Present World Tour.

The performance included more than three decades of his songs, including favourites such as The One I Love, My Oh My, Be Mine, White Ladder, You’re The World To Me, This Year’s Love.

Recommended reading:

David Gray performed in front of a capacity crowd in Scarborough yesterday (Saturday, July 4) (Image: Cuffe and Taylor)

Organisers said a key moment of the night was when the crowd sang along to Babylon, before Gray finished the night with Sail Away.

Very special guests The Divine Comedy were also on the Scarborough bill with David Gray (Image: Cuffe and Taylor)

Gray was accompanied by The Divine Comedy, who opened the evening with their song The National Express and charmed the crowd with their timeless songwriting, the organisers said.

Scarborough Open Air Theatre’s next performances see Alanis Morissette performing tonight, while Michael Bublé is set to perform on Monday as the season of open air performances in Scarborough is set to run until August 22.

Officers attended the scene and an arrest was made

Cambridgeshire Police were called to a street fight in a Cambridgeshire city on Tuesday, June 30. The force was called just before 8.30pm with reports of two people involved in a fight in Cowgate, Peterborough.

Officers attended the scene. They launched a search and with the help of CCTV operators, a 14-year-old boy was located and arrested.

A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Just before 8.30pm, we were called with reports of two men fighting in Cowgate. Officers attended and with the help of CCTV operators, located a 14-year-old boy and arrested him.”

Around four hours earlier, police were called with reports of a separate incident just minutes away. Officers rushed to a fight involving three people in Long Causeway just before 4.20pm. Two men were arrested.

By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER

Updated: 23:14 BST, 5 July 2026

It is one of those North Yorkshire place names that looks deceptively simple on paper but provokes a surprising amount of hesitation.

And in a county that gave the world Slaithwaite (“sla-wit”) and Rievaulx (“ree-vo”), nothing should be taken at face value.

So how do you say it?

The correct local pronunciation is KRAY-thorne – rhyming the first syllable with “tray” and keeping the second syllable crisp and short.

The common mistake visitors make is either to say KRATH-orn (stressing the short “a” sound, as in “catastrophe”) or to overly anglicise it as CRAY-torn.

Neither sounds right to local ears.

The soft “KRAY” opening, as if rhyming with “day” or “say”, is the key.

Why is it spelled that way?

Like many North Yorkshire place names, Crathorne has roots that stretch back to the Old English and Norse settlers who shaped this landscape over a thousand years ago.

The “thorne” ending is common across the north of England and typically refers to a thorn tree or thorny scrubland – a landmark significant enough for early settlers to name their community after.

The “Cra” prefix is thought to relate to a personal name or descriptive term from the same era, though the exact origin remains a matter of local debate among those who enjoy such things.

What is clear is that the spelling drifted over centuries while the spoken form stayed relatively stable – a pattern you find across Yorkshire, where the written name and the spoken name can feel like entirely different words.

A village worth knowing by name

Crathorne itself is a small, quietly beautiful village of around 170 people sitting on the banks of the River Leven, a few miles south of Yarm in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire.

It is dominated in reputation, if not in scale, by Crathorne Hall – a grand Edwardian country house built between 1903 and 1906 for James Lionel Dugdale, which now operates as a luxury hotel.

The Crathorne family itself had owned a manor on the site for centuries before that, with the estate passing through various hands since the 19th century.

The village sits on an estate that has been in the same family since 1844, making it one of the more intact examples of a traditional North Yorkshire village estate, where the feel of continuity runs through everything from the stone buildings to the way people look after the land.

The Yorkshire pronunciation rule

If Crathorne catches you out, it is worth remembering the broader lesson Yorkshire place names teach: when in doubt, the locals have almost always shortened it, softened it, or done something to it that the spelling does not prepare you for.

Masham is “Mass-am”.

Staithes is pronounced “Steers” by those who live there.

Against that backdrop, Crathorne’s “KRAY-thorne” is practically straightforward.

The rule of thumb is simple: if a North Yorkshire place name looks like it should be easy to pronounce, assume it isn’t.

If it looks impossible, it is probably two syllables and very easy once someone tells you.

The housing estate opened more than 10 years ago

Residents on a ‘forgotten’ Peterborough housing estate have received an assurance from the council that plans to improve their development will be delivered later this month.

At a Full Council meeting held on Wednesday, July 1, Leader of Peterborough City Council, Dr Shabina Qayyum, directly addressed residents of the Roman Fields estate who have long campaigned for more facilities.

Cllr Qayyum began by apologising to the residents and campaigners, some of whom attended the meeting in person: “I’m really sorry that you and the residents have had to face this predicament. The current lack of facilities on the Roman Fields development is not acceptable.”

Since it opened more than ten years ago, the Roman Fields estate – also known as Manor Drive – has had no shops, park benches or playing fields. A recently-launched local campaign group called ‘Forgotten Fields’ has been drawing attention to the fact the estate’s facilities currently include one playground, one post box and two bus stops.

Teachers from the estate’s school have voiced concerns that the lack of available outdoor recreation areas may hinder attempts to help keep children on the estate fit and healthy. Cllr Qayyum described the situation as a “complex issue” which has arisen from a “combination of historical planning issues that have stemmed from the 1990s.”

She said: “The developer hasn’t been able to meet the trigger-point of 750 dwellings by which they are obliged to hand over a piece of land south of the school which was envisaged as community land.”

Cllr Qayyum also explained that, until recently, the developer has used other land proposed for community use to the south of Arkwright Drive as a development compound: “There is a need to remediate that before play facilities can be installed,” she said.

The Council Leader added: “We are working proactively to resolve the issue. By the end of July, we will be meeting with stakeholders… to decide what is needed in those development areas.”

These stakeholders, Cllr Qayyum noted, will include residents, ward councillors and the local MP. She added: “By the end of July, we should be forthcoming with a plan as to how we are going to implement those much needed facilities.”

Taking his opportunity to quiz the leader, Roman Fields resident Dr Tim Rogers asked: “Could you confirm please that you are ring-fencing £587,000 – plus all interest it has accrued since it was paid over to the council – for the specific purpose of building a community centre and two new play areas for Manor Drive/Roman Fields residents?”

Cllr Qayyum replied: “That money is in the bank; it’s there to be spent. Whether it’s spent on a community centre or play areas will depend very much on the meetings that will be held with various stakeholders.”

Dr Rogers followed up by asking Dr Qayyum if she would be willing to provide a “cast-iron guarantee” that those funds would be spent before August 2027, as that is the deadline by which those monies, along with all accrued interest, can be returned to the developer.

“We can absolutely guarantee that we are going to be delivering on those projects,” Cllr Qayyum said, adding: “depending on those conversations with stakeholders.”