Our Team

Liam is a journalist with the NSW bureau of The Australian. He started his journalism career as a photographer before freelancing for the NZ Herald, news.com.au and the Daily Telegraph. Liam was News Corp Australia’s Young Journalist of the Year in 2022 and was awarded a Kennedy Award for coverage of the NSW floods. He has also previously worked as a producer for Channel Seven’s investigative journalism program 7News Spotlight. He can be contacted at MendesL@theaustralian.com.au or Liam.Mendes@protonmail.com.

@liammendes

Latest

Northern TerritoryNation

Man dies from stab wounds after Alice Springs brawl

A 28-year-old Warlpiri man has died from stab wounds at Alice Springs Hospital after he was involved in a brawl at a popular bar two months ago.

James Dowling and Liam Mendes

Life on Israel’s northern frontlineWorld

26062025 - Hodaya DuldnerÃ¢â¬â¢s home at the very tip of Israel overlooks the Lebanese town of Kfarkela. Her home was severely damaged during the war against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel. Pictured are ReÃ¢â¬â¢em (child with camera), Saul (middle child) and Neta (baby) Picture: Liam Mendes / The Australian

‘We can’t come back’: Israeli border towns live in fear’s shadow

The truce between Israel and Hezbollah should have seen a return of lifelong residents to their beloved communities. But the revival of towns across the northern border with Lebanon has stalled.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

Middle EastWorld

An armed israeli pushes a pram along a street, the day after Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire, in Tel Aviv on June 24, 2024. Iranian state television said on June 24, an overnight Israeli strike killed a nuclear scientist in northern Iran, before US President Donald Trump said a ceasefire was taking effect between the Middle Eastern foes (Photo by Fadel SENNA / AFP)

Israel after the bombs, a cautious revival

While women readjusted birthing schedules and weddings were cancelled en masse across the country, not everyone was willing to take no for an answer on that.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

Middle East, politics latestWorld

President Donald Trump speaks as he meets NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump ‘very proud’ of Israel, says US strike ‘ended war’

Donald Trump says he is ‘very proud’ Israel heeded his warnings not to break the ceasefire, as he drew parallels between the US strikes on Iran and the 1945 atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Richard Ferguson, Noah Yim, Liam Mendes, Yoni Bashan and staff writers

ISRAEL-IRAN WARWorld

Israeli soldiers and rescue team search for survivors amid the rubble of residential buildings destroyed by an Iranian missile strike that killed several people, in Beersheba, Israel, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Trump’s truce between Israel and Iran under fire

Donald Trump’s gambit to end the Israel-Iran war in just 12 days was in peril on Tuesday night (AEST), with an enraged US president accusing both countries of breaking his ceasefire deal.

Richard Ferguson, Ben Packham, Liam Mendes and Yoni Bashan

Middle East conflictWorld

Israeli soldiers from the search and rescue unit work amid the rubble of residential buildings destroyed by an Iranian missile strike that killed several people, in Beersheba, Israel, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

‘Deal’ brings death, betrayal

An Iranian missile that struck a building in southern Israel killed five people and left at least 20 wounded in the minutes leading up to a tentative ceasefire between the two nations.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

hostage heartbreakWorld

Dalia Cusnir, left; Ruby Chen, top right; Hamas militants parade hostage Yair Horn, bottom right, before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis on February 15. Picture: Liam Mendes, AFP

‘Confused, broken, devastated’: hostage families left with little hope | WATCH

Few issues have dominated the public consciousness in Israel like the hostages who still languish in tunnels beneath Gaza. Yet ever since Israel unleashed a war on Iran, discussion of their plight has taken a backseat.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

Israel-Iran conflictWorld

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on June 24, 2025, to attend the NATO's Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)

‘I’m not happy with Israel’: Trump says both nations violated ceasefire

Donald Trump says the ceasefire was now ‘in effect’ minutes after scolding Israel and Iran who have been fighting ‘for so long’ that they ‘don’t know what the f..k they’re doing.

Liam Mendes, Yoni Bashan and Joe Kelly

middle eastWorld

Surface-to-air anti-ballistic missiles intercept Iranian ballistic missiles attacking US air bases.

Iran attacks US military bases in Middle East

Iran launched short and medium range ballistic missiles towards US military bases in Qatar and Iraq as part of retaliatory attacks around 40 hours after the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.

Liam Mendes and Yoni Bashan

LIVE

Israel-Iran conflictWorld

This satellite picture by Planet Labs PBC shows Iran's underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordo following U.S. airstrikes targeting the facility, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Israel attacks Tehran with ‘unprecedented force’, hits Fordow nuclear site

Israel has attacked Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and Revolutionary Guards headquarters in what the Israeli Defence Minister described as unprecedented strikes on Iranian government targets, and hit access routes to the Fordow nuclear facility.

Megan Neil, Liam Mendes, Joe Kelly, Noah Yim and staff writers

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/liam-mendes