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

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

middle eastWorld

Rescue personnel evacuate a resident from under a building at an impacted site after a missile attack from Iran, amid the Iran-Israel conflict in Tel Aviv, Israel June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Tomer Appelbaum ISRAEL OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN ISRAEL.

Israelis warned to brace for daily strikes

Israeli authorities are bracing for an escalation in daily attacks from Iran, with social gatherings and office work ceased immediately.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

Israel-Iran conflictWorld

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speak during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, June 22, 2025, after the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel's effort to destroy the country's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

US hails ‘incredible, overwhelming success’, reveals details of surprise Iran attack

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has lauded the strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine details how Midnight Hammer unfolded.

Joe Kelly, Liam Mendes, Ellie Dudley and staff writers

major escalationWorld

A woman is evacuated from the site of a direct hit from an Iranian missile strike in Ramat Gan, Israel, Thursday, June 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Ayatollah’s ward war: Iran hits Israel hospital, residential areas

Iranian missile strikes have wreaked carnage in Israel, pounding a hospital and residential areas, as Donald Trump prepares to enter the war in a bid to wipe out Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Ben Packham, Yoni Bashan, Liam Mendes and Megan Neil

Israel-Iran conflictWorld

TOPSHOT - A nurse carries medical supplies past a building with smoke billowing out after at Soroka Hospital after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Beersheba in southern Israel on June 19, 2025. Soroka Hospital and two towns near Tel Aviv were struck after a barrage of Iranian missiles early on June 19, with rescuers reporting at least 47 people injured in the latest attacks. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)

‘Harmony hospital’ evacuation order saved lives

The lives of patients were potentially saved after an evacuation, ordered a day prior to an Iranian attack, of the hospital which treats a high number of Muslim and Palestinian patients.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes

Israel-Iran conflictWorld

Damage in Israel following missile strike.

Ayatollah ‘cannot continue to exist’: Israeli Defence Minister

Israel Katz said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ‘openly declares he wants Israel destroyed’, after a wave of missile strikes hit an Israeli hospital and high-rise buildings.

Liam Mendes, Agencies, Megan Neil and Lydia Lynch

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/liam-mendes/page/2