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Matthew Knott

Matthew Knott

Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Juliet Lamont, Global Sumud Flotilla participant, during a press conference at Parliament House earlier this month.

AFP launches investigation into flotilla activists’ rape, abuse claims against Israel

Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with four Global Sumud flotilla participants in Canberra alongside senior AFP officers to hear their allegations.

  • Matthew Knott

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The Chinese government showed off its growing military capabilities at a lavish parade in 2025.

China’s ability to strike targets in Australia is ‘real and growing’

The rapid expansion of China’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet and long-range missile stockpile is fuelling its growing ability to hit targets in Australia, a new report warns.

  • Matthew Knott
As Trump and Xi circle each other, Taiwan waits.

State of anxiety: As Trump and Xi circle each other, Taiwan is on edge

With Taiwan’s relationship with its most important security partner in flux, the island’s existentialist fears are coming back up to the top.

  • Matthew Knott
Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s invasion have seen it become a pioneer in the use of low-cost drones.

Stalled Ukraine security pact could leave Australia ‘fighting with one hand behind its back’

Australia’s ability to tap Ukraine’s expertise in drones and other advanced technologies is being hampered by delays in striking a security pact.

  • Matthew Knott
Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese in September.

Shorten’s Trump fears on AUKUS revealed

The former Labor leader raised concerns about the prospect of Donald Trump being elected and compromising the AUKUS deal in a cabinet meeting in 2023.

  • Paul Sakkal and Matthew Knott
The blossoming relationship between Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese has sparked concerns Australia is staying silent on human rights issues.

Modi wants Australia’s uranium to power India’s data centre boom

Australia and India struck a historic deal to allow uranium exports in 2014, but there have been only negligible shipments since. That might be about to change.

  • Matthew Knott
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An Israeli flag flies along a highway near the settlement of Carmel in the West Bank.

Israel lashes Australia for ‘disgraceful’ sanctions on extremist settlers

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her counterparts from France, the UK, Canada and Norway said: “For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity.”

  • Matthew Knott
One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson says Australia should spend 5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence.

One Nation defence plan could blow out budget by $400b and require conscription

One Nation’s polling surge, which has pushed it above Labor and the Coalition, has focused attention on the right-wing populist party’s policy platform.

  • Matthew Knott
Donald Trump has been daring lawmakers to defy him and doing his best to vanquish them from office if they do.

Anti-slavery tsar says Trump tariff a distraction from human rights issues

Anti-slavery commissioner Chris Evans said the Trump administration had conducted a “show trial” before proposing its new tariff.

  • Matthew Knott and Nick Newling
Foreign Minister Penny Wong at Senate estimates.

Wong says she believes Australian activists were sexually abused by Israeli soldiers

The foreign minister defended her feminist credentials in a fiery Senate exchange in which she said she was open to meeting the flotilla activists.

  • Matthew Knott