Ange Postecoglou found comfort in Tottenham “at least trying to play a version of ourselves” at Anfield. The assessment will be as disconcerting to Spurs supporters as the performance that yielded a fourth consecutive ­Premier League defeat. This version of Postecoglou’s team was dreadful, and their top-four hopes were ­effectively extinguished as Liverpool rediscovered their verve in Jürgen Klopp’s penultimate home game.

The scoreline flattered the ­conquered. Liverpool cruised towards victory for 72 minutes until Spurs’ substitute Richarlison and their captain Son Heung-min sparked a mini-crisis of confidence among Klopp’s reshuffled pack. It passed. For the second Sunday in succession Spurs performed only when staring at a comprehensive pounding but, just like the north London derby, their late flurry fooled no one. Their manager’s post-match optimism did not convince either. Liverpool were richly deserving of a win delivered by the recalled Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott.

Spurs came into the contest with a glimmer of Champions League ­qualification following Aston Villa’s defeat at Brighton. The problem for Postecoglou is Spurs are not a ­Champions League team, and that was made abundantly clear at Anfield. Incentive alone cannot compensate for flimsy defensive organisation and a largely ineffective forward line.

The visitors started sharply but, while tidy in possession, they were hopeless out of it. With Salah back in the Liverpool starting lineup ­following his petulant row with Klopp at West Ham and granted the freedom of the right wing by Emerson Royal, the hosts were able to enjoy the comforts of home after a few damaging results on the road.

Postecoglou’s team struggled at the first sign of Liverpool pressure. The only fight in a quite pathetic first-half performance from Spurs came in a half-time bust-up between Cristian Romero and the lazy Emerson. The goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario, had to intervene as a peace-maker.

Salah, giving a rousing reception when the teams were announced before kick-off, struck the crossbar from Liverpool’s first attack of note, curling an effort with the outside of his boot over Vicario and against the woodwork. A desperate clearance by Micky van de Ven prevented the recalled striker pouncing on Gakpo’s header as Spurs struggled to hang on. Desperate is a fitting description of their defensive efforts. Static, slow, weak and careless are also applicable.

Vicario saved from Salah when the Egypt international was put through on goal by Elliott, who swept the rebound beyond the visiting keeper only for Romero to block on the line. The opportunity stemmed from a dreadful touch in central midfield by Pape Sarr. It would not be his last.

The inevitable breakthrough came from an inevitable source. Wataru Endo switched play out to Gakpo on the left and the in-form forward floated a delightful cross into the space that Emerson regularly left behind him for Salah to head home. Vicario was left exposed once again but could have done more to prevent the header crossing the line.

Liverpool were back to their old selves in terms of intensity, pressing and dominance although their wastefulness in front of goal was also on display prior to Robertson pouncing on the stroke of half-time. Salah, ­Elliott and Trent Alexander-Arnold all fired over before Liverpool’s left-back gave the scoreline a fairer reflection of his team’s superiority. Alexander-Arnold supplied his fellow full-back with a pin-point cross to the back post. Robertson squared to Salah and, though Vicario got down well to save the striker’s first time shot, the loose ball rolled perfectly for the Scotland captain to tap home. The sight of Robertson walking the ball home summed up how easy the first half was for Liverpool, as well as the pitiful efforts from Spurs.

Postecoglou’s half-time team talk had no galvanising effect. Liverpool were soon three up when Elliott took the ball off Emerson and centred for Gakpo to steer a textbook header into the bottom corner. Four ­followed swiftly, and superbly, when ­Emerson headed a Robertson cross into the path of Salah and he teed up Elliott. The midfielder cut inside and curled a stunning 20-yard shot into Vicario’s top right corner.

The Spurs manager rang the changes in the face of a one-sided embarrassment with Richarlison, James Maddison and Oliver Skipp arriving just after the hour. Now the visitors improved. It helped that Klopp utilised his substitutes’ bench too, with a detrimental impact on ­Liverpool’s rhythm.

Richarlison punctured Alisson’s designs on a clean sheet when ­turning in Brennan Johnson’s low cross. That appeared to be the extent of ­Liverpool’s problems until the ­former Everton favourite assisted a second for Son, turning Skipp’s ­delivery into the path of his captain who ­produced a clinical finish. Anfield was ­suddenly on edge, especially when Salah missed a gilt-edged chance to restore a comfortable lead from two yards out.

From coasting Liverpool were now in danger every time Spurs ventured forward. Alisson saved brilliantly from ­Richarlison, with Joe Gomez preventing Johnson converting the rebound, while Alexander-Arnold made a vital interception to prevent the Brazil international claiming his second of the game. Spurs’ late rally was not enough. It would have been a travesty had it conjured anything. The top four should be beyond them.

Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country.

Critics called the move, which comes as faltering indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue, a “dark day for the media” and raised new concerns about the attitude to free speech of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government.

Israeli officials said the move was justified because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security. “The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” the country’s prime minister posted on social media after the unanimous cabinet vote.

A government statement said Israel’s communications minister had signed orders to act immediately to close al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, confiscate broadcast equipment, cut the channel off from cable and satellite companies and block its websites.

The network, which is funded by Qatar, has been critical of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, from where it has reported around the clock throughout the seven-month war.

Al Jazeera said the accusation that it threatened Israeli security was a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk.

“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information,” the company said in a statement. “Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences.”

A pre-recorded “final report” listing the restrictions placed on the network by a reporter in Jerusalem was broadcast on the network after the ban came into effect.

Al Jazeera has previously accused the Israeli authorities of deliberately targeting several of its journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza Al-Dahdouh, both killed in Gaza during the conflict. Israel has rejected the charge and says it does not target journalists.

The office of the UN high commissioner for human rights also criticised the move. “We regret cabinet decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel,” it said on X. “A free & independent media is essential to ensuring transparency & accountability. Now, even more so given tight restrictions on reporting from Gaza. Freedom of expression is a key human right. We urge govt to overturn ban.”

Israel’s parliament ratified a law last month that allows for the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered a threat to national security.

The law allows Netanyahu and his security cabinet to shut Al Jazeera’s offices in Israel for 45 days, a period that can be renewed, so it could stay in force until the end of July or until the end of major military operations in Gaza.

While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language service often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other militant groups in the region, drawing sharp criticism from Israeli officials.

A campaign of judicial reform led last year by Netanyahu’s coalition government, the most rightwing in Israel’s history, prompted great opposition and accusations of authoritarianism. Recent crackdowns on protesters against the Gaza war in Israel have also raised new concerns for free speech.

The Foreign Press Association, a NGO representing journalists working for international news organisations reporting from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza accused Israel of joining a “dubious club of authoritarian governments”.

“This is a dark day for the media. This is a dark day for democracy,” it said in a statement.

There was also some political opposition in Israel to the move, or at least its timing. The National Unity party, a centrist member of the ruling coalition, said that coming as ceasefire talks appeared close to failing, it could “sabotage efforts” to free Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Qatar established Al Jazeera in 1996 to build influence around the Middle East and further afield.

The small Gulf state, where several Hamas political leaders are based, was a key mediator in the talks but has been marginalised in recent weeks, which may have encouraged the Israeli government to act.

Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza to cover the conflict, which was triggered by Hamas attacks into southern Israel on 7 October last year in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 34,000 people, mostly women and children.

Centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred Antarctic blue whales alive, making it almost impossible to find them in the wild.

Now new research suggests the population may be recovering. Australian scientists and international colleagues spent two decades listening for their distinctive songs and calls, and found the whales – the largest animals ever to have lived – swimming across the Southern Ocean with growing regularity.

Analysis of thousands of hours of audio, collected with underwater microphones and secondhand military-issued submarine listening devices, suggests whale numbers are stable or on the rise, according to Australian Antarctic Division senior research scientist Brian Miller.

“When you look back to before this work was started by the AAD, we really just had so few encounters with these animals – and now we can produce them on demand,” Miller said.

“We can tell you where they’re frequenting, we can tell you that we’re hearing them more often. So that’s progress.”

The whales were heard increasingly often in the Southern Ocean from 2006 to 2021, according to a new paper collating the findings of Australian and international researchers’ seven voyages across the period.

“Either they’re either increasing in number or we’re increasing in our ability to find them, and both of those things are good news,” Miller said.

The Antarctic blue whale nearly became extinct before whaling’s decline in the mid-20th century, with the most recent estimates from 1998 suggesting there were fewer than 2,000 alive.

Researchers have spent hours listening for repeating songs about 20 seconds long, termed Z calls, along with shorter, higher-pitched D calls, in an effort to track and study the critically endangered species.

“We think the message is: ‘I’m a blue whale, I’m here,’” Miller said.

“If you think about … us almost wiping them out, and extinction, then it becomes more poignant to think about them saying, ‘I’m still here, here I am.’”

The scientists travelled nearly 150,000km across the Southern Ocean tracking the whales’ appearances around Antarctica. Other Australian researchers say the study’s geographical and temporal range provides a unique insight into the state of the species.

“This is the first indication of what’s happening with Antarctic blue whales … for a good 20 years,” said Prof Robert Harcourt, a marine ecologist at Macquarie University. “All of the earlier work was based back in the 1950s when we were killing them.”

Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke said: “Having so many years [of data] over several seasons … and then having it over thousands of kilometres – that’s really unique.”

The whales spend half the year in Antarctic waters but are global travellers – heading north towards Australia, South Africa, South America and even across the equator.

Their distribution means scientists around the world have been drawn to the project, which Miller hopes will be a step forward for the International Whaling Commission’s conservation efforts.

“Only an international collaborative effort is going to be able to piece together the puzzle of where they are and whether they’re recovering,” he said.

In 1970, aged 35, Jack Lueders-Booth left a well-paid management job at an insurance company in his native Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue his interest in photography. “Until then, I was a serious hobbyist,” he tells me over the phone from the city where he still lives, “but my interest had deepened to the point where it was more and more difficult to do my day job. I needed something more stimulating. Photography was my real vocation.”

Soon afterwards he landed a job as an administrator for the fledgling photography department at Harvard University, where later he also enrolled as a student. For his master’s thesis, he submitted a proposal that would alter the course of his life. “I told them I wanted to teach photography in places of confinement such as prisons and mental hospitals,” he elaborates, “I thought it would be beneficial for the inmates in all sorts of ways, not least because they could share their experience with their families through the images they made.”

One of the producers of a Channel 4 documentary that contains fresh claims that Kevin Spacey “behaved inappropriately” with men says it will be broadcast as planned on Monday, despite public denials from the actor this weekend.

Dorothy Byrne, a former head of news and current affairs at the television channel, told the Observer that she hopes the new two-part programme, Spacey Unmasked, will prompt “a #MeToo moment for men” and start a wider discussion about standards of behaviour in working situations.

“We’re going ahead,” said Byrne. “I’ve made a lot of programmes over decades about women suffering inappropriate behaviour, so this has been a very interesting project to work on. I do feel that it’s a #MeToo moment for men. Lots of things that were done to women 50 years ago are still being done to men, many of whom feel that  they have to put up with it. Employees now know to look out for this kind of behaviour, but they tend to assume it’s going to be a woman at risk.”

The documentary makers say it will show claims from several men “regarding events they say took place between 1976 and 2013”.

Last year, after a London criminal trial, the actor was found not guilty of nine sexual offences, including sexual assault charges and a charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent, alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2013. He also won a US civil lawsuit in October 2022, after being accused of an unwanted sexual advance at a party in 1986.

Addressing the new claims of inappropriate behaviour, Byrne said: “In the past it was often thought to be homophobic to call this kind of male behaviour out, but I would argue it is a homophobic attitude to think this behaviour is something gay men accept. It’s not true.”

Spacey, 64, tells the journalist Dan Wootton that he strongly denies the claims, saying that he will be “no longer speechless”, in an interview put out on the X social media platform. The actor also expresses sorrow and irritation that he is having to defend himself after recent public exonerations.

Spacey was the artistic director of London’s Old Vic theatre for 11 years, as well as being an established, Oscar- winning film and TV star, perhaps best known for his roles in The Usual Suspects and the drama series House of Cards.

“I take full responsibility for my past behaviour and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologise to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me,” he tells Wootton, adding “…I’ve clearly hooked up with some men who thought they might get ahead in their careers by having a relationship with me… But there was no conversation with me, it was all part of their plan, a plan that was always destined to fail, because I wasn’t in on the deal.”

He also tells Wootton that he sometimes flirted and “hooked up” with other actors, conceding he made some “clumsy” approaches to men who “turned out” not to be interested. “But I was not employing them, I was not their boss, I was oftentimes just swimming in for an hour here or there as a well-known actor to lend support… to answer questions.
“That may not have been the best decision, and it is not one I would do today, but it happened… It wasn’t illegal, and nor has it ever been alleged to have been illegal.”

More than a million people have thronged Brazil’s Copacabana beach for a free Madonna concert, braving the heat to see the end of her Celebration world tour.

The sand and oceanfront boulevard around Rio de Janeiro’s famed beach were filled for several blocks on Saturday night by a crowd the city estimated at 1.6 million.

Many had been there for hours or even days to get a good spot, while richer fans anchored in dozens of boats near the beach and people crowded beachfront apartments.

Firefighters sprayed water before the concert, when temperatures exceeded 30C (86F), to cool fans gathered near the pop queen’s stage, and drinking water was distributed for free. The temperature was about 27C (81F) during the late night show.

Madonna, 65, was on stage for more than two hours, performing songs including Like a Prayer, Vogue and Express Yourself from 10.45pm as she wound up the greatest hits tour, which started late last year.

“Rio, here we are, in the most beautiful place in the world, with the ocean, the mountains, Jesus,” Madonna told the crowd, referring to the city’s huge mountaintop Christ the Redeemer statue. “Magic.”

The Brazilian pop artists Anitta and Pabllo Vittar, as well as younger musicians from samba schools, participated in the show.

More than 3,000 police officers were deployed around the concert area, where the Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart have also drawn million-strong crowds. The authorities used a crowd-management strategy similar to their handling of the city’s famous New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Brazilian authorities have stepped up their vigilance over heat-related health problems after a young Brazilian fan died at a concert by Taylor Swift last year due to heat exhaustion.

Rio’s state and city governments said they spent 20m reais (£3.1m) on the concert, while the rest was financed by private sponsors. The authorities estimate the concert could bring in about 300m reais (£47m) to Rio’s economy.

This year’s Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first “Cop of peace”, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans being drawn up by organisers.

Nations may be asked to observe a “Cop truce”, suspending hostilities for the fortnight-long duration of the conference, modelled on the Olympic truce, which is observed by most governments during the summer and winter Olympic Games.

Cop29 will be held in November in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, amid two big wars – the Ukraine invasion and the Israel-Gaza conflict – raging in neighbouring regions and worsening geopolitical tensions.

But the host country’s top national security adviser said that the climate summit, which 196 governments are expected to attend, could become an engine for peace, by finding common ground among countries in the urgent need to tackle global heating.

“Azerbaijan continues and will exert additional efforts to make Cop yet another success story with regard to peace, and to make Cop29 a Cop of peace alongside the climate action issue,” said Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to the president, Ilham Aliyev, in an interview with the Observer in Baku. “We are working on the advancement of the peace agenda.”

The climate crisis is likely to exacerbate food and water shortages, and could increase migration, adding to pressures on states and potentially sparking border issues, he warned.

“Security isn’t about hardware – it has many elements, and you cannot deny climate action, environment change or environmental problems [are relevant to national security and peace],” he said. “We are affected by climate change – it’s part of national security and global security.”

Hajiyev would like to see nations observe a “Cop truce”, but conceded this would be difficult. “We are discussing with different partners about a Cop truce, like in the Olympics. But it is at an early stage of thinking. It will require additional consultations and discussion,” he said.

Until late last year, Azerbaijan was locked in a 30-year conflict with neighbouring Armenia over disputed territory and ethnic differences.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, hostilities between the majority Muslim Azerbaijanis and the Christian majority in neighbouring Armenia had been partially resolved in a 1994 ceasefire.

But the simmering tension flared into violence in 2020, leading to more than 7,000 deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of people. Each side has accused the other of ethnic cleansing.

In December 2023 the countries negotiated a peace deal, which has held. However, there are still disputes over the status of some detainees.

At the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai in December last year, Armenia supported Azerbaijan’s campaign to hold this year’s climate conference, the first international gesture of support between the two longtime antagonists.

Hajiyev said that this experience was what led Azerbaijan to focus on global peace at Cop29. “Our approach to the peace agenda is living by example.”

It is understood that there is nervousness in some quarters at the UN over tying the issues of the climate crisis and national security too closely together. The fear is that bad feeling over global conflicts could spill over to affect the climate negotiations, and it could be safer to keep them as separate issues.

Putting peace on the agenda at Cop29 also throws a spotlight on Azerbaijan’s conduct in the war with Armenia, and its human rights record, which has attracted strong criticism.

Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and UN high commissioner for human rights, who has also twice served as a UN climate envoy, is now chair of the Elders group of former world political and business leaders. She said she welcomed the intention to focus on peace, noting there were precedents in the work of environmental activists who linked their work with healing conflicts.

But she voiced concern over Azerbaijan’s stance. She said: “I think the idea is a good idea. If we could make more of climate and security and peace, that would be a good step.”

But she added: “I’m not sure the peace with Armenia is a perfect peace, to say the least. There are very big issues. There are political prisoners, I am part of a campaign to try to get them released. We should hold [Azerbaijan] to account for their own human rights record.”

Hajiyev told the Observer that NGOs and civil society groups would be “most welcome” at Cop29.

The worsening rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries that has in recent years spread across the world, has now extended beyond the terrestrial, into the realms of the celestial.

As China has become deeply enmeshed in strategic competition with the US – while edging towards outright hostilities with other regional neighbours – Washington’s alarm at the pace of its advancement in space is growing ever-louder.

Beijing has made no secret over its ambitions and a spate of recent successful space missions has shown that the government’s rhetoric is backed by technological advances.

On Friday, China launched a robotic spacecraft on a round trip to the moon’s far side, in a technically demanding mission that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole. The Chang’e-6 is aiming to bring back samples from the side of the moon that permanently faces away from Earth.

Earlier this week saw the launch of the Shenzhou-18, Beijing’s latest staffed spacecraft mission to the Tiangong space station, which was developed after China was excluded from the International Space Station.

Along with the three taikonauts, a live fish which has been dubbed “the fourth crew member”, was among the crew. The zebrafish is part of an experiment to test the viability of a large closed ecosystem, involving fish and algae, to help people live in space for long periods.

But the collection of moon samples and the viability of zebrafish are not the only focus for China’s space sector.

The pace of China’s ambitions has drawn concern from the government’s major rival, the US, over Beijing’s geopolitical intentions amid what the head of Nasa has called a new “space race”.

Last week the head of Nasa, Bill Nelson, said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the moon, and he feared that China wanted to stake territorial claims.

“We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program,” he told US legislators.

There are concerns over China’s development of counter-space weapons, including missiles that can target satellites, and spacecraft that can pull satellites out of orbit.

“On a geopolitical level, China’s space ambitions raise questions about how it might leverage its space capabilities to further its regional and domestic political and military interests,” says Dr Svetla Ben-Itzhak, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s West Space Scholars Program.

Gen Stephen Whiting of the US Space Command, told reporters last week that China’s advances were “cause for concern”, noting it had tripled the number of spy satellites in orbit over the last six years.

‘It’s the wild, wild west’

The US and China are indeed in a race, says Prof Kazuto Suzuki, of the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, but it’s not to simply set feet on the moon like during the cold war. Rather, it’s to find and control resources, like water.

“It’s a race for who has better technical capabilities. China is quickly catching up. The pace of Chinese technological development is the threatening element [to the US],” he says.

Suzuki says international agreements don’t allow for national appropriation of resources on the moon, but in reality “it’s the wild, wild west”.

“Generally speaking China wants to be first so they have the right to dominate and monopolise the resources. If you have the resources in your hand then you have a huge advantage in the future of space exploration.”

The US and China are leading the development of separate space station programs for the moon. The US-led Artemis program includes plans for a “Lunar Gateway”, a station orbiting the moon as a communication and accommodation hub for astronauts, and a scientific laboratory.

The Americans however, “are not so interested in owning the moon because they’ve been there”, Suzuki says.

“They know it’s not really a habitable place, they are more interested in Mars. So for them the Lunar Gateway is sort of a gas station for the journey to Mars.” If the Artemis program can source water from the moon, it could be processed to create rocket fuel from the hydrogen and oxygen.

In contrast, China and Russia announced in 2021 joint plans to build a shared research station on the surface of the moon. The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) would be open to any interested international parties they said. However the US would unlikely be among them given its poor relations with both China and Russia.

Suzuki says the China-Russia station “is supposed to serve like the research station in Antarctica”, which is within the rules of international space treaties. “But if it turns out to be a station to base their territorial claims, then that is against the rules.”

The US is gathering allies to ensure China doesn’t win the space race. Earlier this month, not long after China announced its intentions to land a person on the moon, US leader Joe Biden and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida pledged to send a astronaut from Japan – China’s historical rival – to the moon on Nasa’s Artemis missions in 2028 and again in 2032.

But China is also gathering allies. It has partnerships or financial stakes in projects across the Middle East and Latin America, and around a dozen international members for its ILRS.

But Ben-Itzhak notes there are some overlapping memberships. Also “neither bloc has instituted exclusionary practices thus far, which is promising”.

Ben-Itzhak says the US and China are indeed engaged in a race, but the term doesn’t fully capture “the complex, nuanced dynamics currently unfolding in space, in terms of the diverse and increasing number of actors and initiatives, and no clear end goal in sight”.

“The real challenge in space is not just about reaching a specific milestone, like planting flags or collecting rocks; it is about establishing a sustainable, resilient presence in an incredibly challenging environment. This is a test against our own abilities.”

Additional research by Chi Hui Lin

Gemma and I were both junior lawyers working at a Melbourne legal aid office, providing free advice to disadvantaged people facing eviction. Having experienced housing insecurity myself as a young person, it was a dream to give back to my community by helping others in the same situation.

Our office romance began in 2017 after we both attended a colleague’s apocalypse-themed house party in Brunswick West. Gemma had gone to a lot of effort to dress up as Octavia Blake from the sci-fi show The 100, while I only managed to find an aged, pilled black hoodie for the occasion. Over a few too many dirty martinis, I fessed up to my raging crush on her and we spent the rest of the night canoodling in the back yard on a structurally unsound velvet couch.

Our new relationship blossomed in secret over overpriced lattes served on crates in the Melbourne CBD and in tucked-away laneway bars after work. We had some great fun in those days, swapping war stories about our hectic days in the tenancy tribunal and laughing about the endless office dramas in our quirky, underfunded office.

I adored her passion for sticking up for the underdog and skill in bringing people together. Whether we were in a casework meeting or doing the lunchtime quiz, Gemma always found a way to keep us all feeling merry. But I wasn’t expecting things to become serious. I’d just had a big breakup and this was Gemma’s first queer relationship. I kept reminding myself to enjoy things while they lasted.

Then early the next year, one of our most important cases was appealed by the landlord to the supreme court of Victoria. This was a big deal, since the decision would affect all renters across the state. Somebody had to step up, dust off the communal office wig and gown, and advocate for a vulnerable client facing homelessness, in an imposing, Renaissance-style sandstone building.

After agonising for a moment, Gemma put up her hand to do it. The rest of us breathed a sigh of relief. Over the next two weeks, Gemma put her head down to learn everything there was to know about homelessness law, civil procedure and arcane supreme courtroom etiquette. I made her strong cups of tea while she stayed up late working, while my housemates and I drank wine and watched TV.

On the big day, I took a seat on the hardwood pews at the back as Gemma began to speak. I noticed a few journalists sitting beside me jotting down notes. This was a big deal and I felt terrified on Gemma’s behalf. I needn’t have. Gemma put on the performance of a lifetime, advocating for our client’s right to shelter and safety with poise and skill far beyond her years.

Hours later, Gemma and her client hugged in tears of joy and relief on the steps of the supreme court. I felt an immense sense of pride. I knew at that moment that Gemma wasn’t just a great person who was fun to be around, but a brilliant advocate full of compassion and empathy. It made me believe that Gemma would have my back if I needed her too.

A few weeks later, despite feeling incredibly nervous, I told Gemma that I wanted to transition. At first she was scared, worried she wasn’t informed enough to know how to support me. But she took up the challenge to learn all she could, and had me smiling and laughing as she drove me to what felt like an endless stream of healthcare appointments. Since then, she has been a constant source of stability and support, and even become an expert in transgender legal issues.

This year, we’ll celebrate our seventh anniversary. Gemma is now a successful human rights barrister and I’m still working in community law. We’re the proud fur-parents of a black cat and a senior dog, and still love a night out now and then in Melbourne’s tiny laneway bars.

Sam Elkin is the author of Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga (Upswell Publishing, RRP $29.99). His book launch is at the Wheeler Centre Performance Space in Melbourne at 6.30pm on 6 May.