The Saturday Paper

Two years since his last novel, Juice, Tim Winton, a 66-year-old husband, father and grandfather, says his “spirit is bruised”. He is “deeply troubled by this moment ... On current trends and policy settings, we’re sending our descendants to hell”. trib.al/2aesZdl

The United Firefighters Union have become the latest union to break a long-held alliance with the Victorian Labor Party. Martin McKenzie-Murray reports. trib.al/O8KmETG

Exclusive: "Basically a copy and paste" Rick Morton on how the government is taking an automated assessment algorithm used in aged care – already the subject of legal challenges — to manage NDIS reforms. trib.al/Sx0BmzP

Editorial: This is where the far right has ended up. It is violent, reactionary and ascendant. Creatures such as Thomas Sewell have no answers, but they do provide a serious question: how did the country allow this to happen? trib.al/bqUk5v4

“In the venture-capital-driven world of health technology, the imperative for companies is to make a profitable product, while the impetus for clinicians is to provide safe care and improve client outcomes. These are conflicting goals.” trib.al/yTsQQfH

The story of Helen Haines should ensure “we chart a new course towards civility in politics”, says Nicolette Boele. trib.al/7kU1NZ6

NSW's biggest infrastructure project since the Opera House, the $915 million Powerhouse Parramatta, has been shadowed by the suspension of its chief executive over claims of conflicts of interest and tender improprieties. trib.al/1b8vIWa

In several Australian jurisdictions, police watch houses have become quasi-prison cells, as punitive crackdowns on bail and other “tough on crime” measures have filled jails across the country. trib.al/SNIaygM

“In the ALP, there’s the tricky consideration: do you refuse to have them humiliate the party and expel them before they vote to kill the affiliation? Or do you just let them go their way? I’d have thought the election outcome was foregone anyway…" trib.al/vqtZlZn

Days after The Saturday Paper published confidential correspondence between ANU interim vice-chancellor Rebekah Brown and the deans of the university’s six academic colleges, members of the university council immediately pushed for Brown to stand aside. trib.al/NAKKyR1

The story of Helen Haines should ensure “we chart a new course towards civility in politics”, says Nicolette Boele. trib.al/vv4aMiF

Exclusive: A third investigation into former ANU vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell was commissioned in the wake of the resignation of chancellor Julie Bishop, along with several other high-profile members of the university’s governing council. trib.al/hLyctp9

A surge of appeals to the new ART is under way, even before Labor completes a rollout of more automated decision-making amid massive cuts to the NDIS budget. Members are already struggling to keep up, say former colleagues. trib.al/RDYroLl

There have been several recent deaths in police cells – exactly how many is difficult to establish as the relevant data is not collected – and legal and human rights organisations say that without urgent reforms, there will be more. trib.al/1co0wL8

Research suggests more than 40 per cent of general practitioners use AI scribe devices to generate notes for sessions. But their use is unregulated despite the implications for healthcare decision-making. trib.al/p85Svhs

New short fiction from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams: One summer afternoon as I sat in the old wicker chair facing the mountains taking the sun, a tiny boreal chickadee landed, weightless, on my left knee. trib.al/QVu7bAv

The TGA reviewed 12 medical scribe devices and found eight of them may conceivably be called medical devices, which would necessitate approval as a medical device by the TGA before release. trib.al/JVrdIkx

Thoughtful and thought-provoking, Jennifer Higgie's bio-novel about the incarcerated painter Richard Dadd literally embodies a youthful, introverted mind possessed by spirits who is questioning both life and art. trib.al/jNjc4BX

“I found Ben Simmons aloof, self-pitying and much too resistant to criticism – but he has also suffered some terrible misfortune. The latest is wrenching and, characteristically, very dramatic. It is also likely to end his NBA career. I hope I’m wrong.” trib.al/j3TY2Te

"We regulate food, medicine and financial advice because the harms are real and the consumers cannot inspect the product. Platforms that profit from amplifying outrage should have to open their recommendation systems to independent scrutiny." trib.al/49ziPfF