Australia is the seventh ‘most fun' country in the world, according to 17,000 people
This ranking comes from the US News & World Repor t's annual Best Countries report, which polled 17,000 respondents from 36 nations worldwide. Since 'fun' means something different to everyone, they surveyed a diverse pool of people, including business leaders, informed elites and the general public – asking each to rate how strongly they associate each country with fun.
Australia scored an impressive 85.1 out of 100, landing as the seventh-most fun country in the world. It was one of only two countries in Oceania to crack the top ten, and yep, we beat New Zealand, which came in ninth. Looking for fun things to do Down Under? We recommend having a laugh with local legends at your neighbourhood pub, catching a live AFL, NRL or cricket match, surfing at one of our legendary beaches, sipping your way through our world-class wineries, or simply chilling out at a backyard barbecue. Want more fun? Here's your ultimate guide to the best things to do in Australia.
If you're looking to have maximum fun while travelling, Spain is the place to be – officially crowned the most fun country on the planet. Its fun factor gets a juicy boost from La Tomatina Festival, the world's largest food fight, where more than 20,000 people chuck tomatoes at each other in the streets. Sure, getting splattered in tomato juice isn't everyone's idea of fun, but Spain's also got beautiful beaches, flamenco fiestas, tasty tapas crawls and a buzzing late-night party scene. A little bit of fun for everyone!
Next up was Brazil – home to the world's biggest celebration of Carnival – followed by Thailand, Italy and Mexico. You can check out more of the world's most fun countries below.
The 10 most fun countries in the world
Spain
Brazil
Thailand
Italy
Mexico
Greece
Australia
Portugal
New Zealand
France
🍷 Two Australian bars were named among the world's best by Time Out
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The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Future Council follows eight children fighting for the climate. But should kids be saddled with such a burden?
Ruby Rodgers didn't expect to cry. The 14-year-old singer-songwriter and granddaughter of Australian rock great Jimmy Barnes had promised herself she'd be strong. But when she found herself surrounded by other young people voicing their fears about the climate crisis, she let the tears fall. 'I was really worried people were going to see that and think I was overly sensitive,' she says. 'But I was a child. I am a child. And I realised how important it was for other kids to see that it's OK to feel deeply.' Rodgers is one of eight children from around the world who are featured in Future Council, a new documentary from Damon Gameau, the Australian director of crusading documentaries That Sugar Film and 2040. 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Maxwell reveals the genuine connections between Clinton and Epstein
Of all the weird decorations – from a stuffed black poodle to a framed collection of fake eyeballs – that Jeffrey Epstein acquired for his New York mansion, possibly no item invited quite so many questions as a painting of President Clinton sprawled suggestively on an Oval Office chair, wearing a blue dress and heels. It wasn't as immediately disturbing as the first-edition copy of Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov's notorious 1955 novel in which a man develops a sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl – which Epstein kept displayed in his office. Or the paintings of unclothed women, and large silver ball and chain he kept in the massage room where he allegedly [expletive] local schoolgirls. However the prominently displayed 2012 Clinton portrait – created by Australian satirical artist Petrina Ryan-Kleid and inspired by the stained blue dress worn by White Office intern Monica Lewinsky during her sexual liaison with the libidinous president – raised questions that went far beyond Epstein's questionable taste in art. Insiders claimed it showed how close Epstein was to Clinton, a man usually surrounded by sycophants, that he could make light of such a painfully sensitive subject. Epstein, who also displayed in his living room a signed and framed photo of him and Clinton grinning at each other, delighted in 'collecting' famous people as friends and associates. It not only flattered his huge ego but made him seem more respectable to the girls and women on whom he preyed. And while President Clinton would naturally have been one of that collection's prize exhibits, he has always strenuously insisted he barely knew Epstein and only once visited his seven-floor Manhattan town house. However, the Daily Mail can reveal that Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured), Epstein's longtime companion and convicted accomplice in his sexual abuse of young women, has now contradicted Clinton's claim that Epstein was never more than an acquaintance. Questioned about Bill Clinton and his family during her controversial interrogation by the US Justice Department two weeks ago, Maxwell insisted she and Epstein knew Clinton well, according to sources familiar with the conversation. Maxwell – who became sufficiently close to the Clintons to attend the 2010 wedding of their daughter Chelsea – said she had been a friend of the 42nd president for some time and had flown around the world in his company. She also said he'd given her private gifts. The interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche took place behind closed doors in a courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, near the jail where Maxwell was serving her 20-year sentence. (She has since been transferred.) Were Maxwell's attempts to link Epstein to the Clintons a ploy to endear her to Trump, who hates the Democrat family and could, as president, pardon her? She certainly won't want to alienate the White House. But it is also understood that Maxwell resents the Clintons' decision to distance themselves from her following her public disgrace. The relationship between Clinton and Epstein is now once again centre of a scandal that won't go away, after the former president and wife Hillary were subpoenaed to testify about Epstein to a congressional investigation. Clinton and his wife, a former Secretary of State whose 1999 Senate run benefited from a $20,000 contribution from Epstein, will be compelled to testify in October before the Republican-led 'House Oversight Committee'. A raft of senior federal officials, including five former attorney-generals and two FBI chiefs, have also been summoned to be grilled on what they know, amid continuing accusations from angry MAGA supporters that the Trump administration is engaged in a cover-up over the Epstein scandal. The bipartisan House Committee says it is examining how federal agencies handle sex-trafficking cases and offer plea deals, and specifically the prosecution of Epstein and Maxwell. In 2008, the former escaped with a minimal custodial sentence that's been described as a mere 'slapped hand' after agreeing an extraordinarily lenient deal with Florida's federal prosecutors. Bill Clinton has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein's 'terrible crimes' or involvement in any wrongdoing. And that, scoff critics, is despite the fact that flight logs show that he flew at least 26 times on Epstein's private jets – planes which the staffed with teenage girls in an alleged attempt to entice the powerful men on board. However, Clinton has been repeatedly challenged over his claims that his relationship with Epstein was fleeting. Only last month the Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton had been among friends and associates who were asked by Maxwell to write a tribute to Epstein for a commemorative book celebrating his 50th birthday in 2003. In a handwritten note, Clinton said: 'It's reassuring isn't it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.' Hardly the sort of insight, surely, that one might have gained from merely a passing acquaintance. Perhaps it was no surprise then that James Comer, the committee's Republican chairman, didn't mince words in his recent letters to the Clintons, mentioning how Bill has admitted flying on Epstein's private plane and how 'during one of these trips, you were even pictured receiving a 'massage' from one of Mr Epstein's victims'. Comer also mentioned claims that Clinton once 'pressured Vanity Fair not to publish sex trafficking allegations' against his 'good friend Mr Epstein', adding there are 'conflicting reports' about if he 'ever visited Mr. Epstein's island'. The congressman told Mr Clinton: 'You were also allegedly close to Ms Maxwell, an Epstein co-conspirator, and attended an intimate dinner with her in 2014, three years after public reports about her involvement in Mr Epstein's abuse of minors'. Comer's letter to Hillary cited a further connection, noting that Maxwell's nephew was employed by Mrs Clinton's 2008 failed presidential campaign and then hired by the State Department after she became Secretary of State. At least they were spared mention of a 2020 book, A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Death Of Jeffrey Epstein, by reporters Alana Goodman and Daniel Halper, which sensationally claimed Clinton had an affair with Maxwell. A Clinton spokesman dismissed the allegation as a 'total lie'. The House committee certainly has enough on its agenda to make the Clintons shift uncomfortably in their seats (if they don't try to claim 'executive privilege', which allows senior members and former members of the US government to withhold information in certain circumstances). And while it's clear that even Trump's most loyal supporters want greater transparency over the Epstein scandal, critics have pointed out that congressional Republicans will be doing the President a favour by distracting attention from their leader's own controversial association with Epstein. Trump himself has over the years repeatedly urged the media to focus attention on Clinton's relationship with the predator – particularly his reported visits to Epstein's Caribbean home, dubbed '[expletive] Island' – rather than on his own links. During his recent trip to Scotland, sitting beside Keir Starmer, Trump claimed: 'I never went to the island, and Bill Clinton went there supposedly 28 times.' For the record, Clinton insists he never visited the island, Little St James, although at least three people claim they saw him there. In 2019, it was revealed that Virginia Giuffre, who accused both Epstein and Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, had years earlier told her lawyers that she and two 'lovely girls' from New York once flew there with him some time after his presidency ended in January 2001. The late Giuffre, who alleged she was a teenage 'sex slave' for Epstein and his friends, said they all joined Epstein and Maxwell for a dinner at which Clinton teased the women with 'playful pokes' and 'brassy comments', adding 'there was no modesty between any of them' before leaving with the pair at the end of the night. In an unpublished memoir, she wrote: 'Strolling into the darkness with two beautiful girls around either arm, Bill seemed content to retire for the evening.' According to Giuffre, who never accused Clinton of any wrongdoing, when she asked Epstein what the ex-president was doing there, he laughed and answered cryptically: 'He owes me a favour.' Giuffre added: 'He never told me what favours they were. I never knew. I didn't know if he was serious.' Steve Scully, an IT contractor who worked for Epstein on the island, said he once saw Clinton with Epstein at his villa on the estate. Scully, a father of three girls, said there were photos of topless women everywhere on the island and he eventually left Epstein's employ because he became uncomfortable about the groups of young girls who appeared to be underage. And in 2020, Doug Band, Clinton's former key aide and confidant for 20 years, told Vanity Fair that Clinton visited '[expletive] Island' in January 2003 after he'd flown the previous year with Kevin Spacey and Epstein on the latter's capacious Boeing 727 (the plane nicknamed the Lolita Express) during a 'humanitarian' five-country trip to Africa for the Clinton Foundation. Band said Epstein gave him 'bad vibes' and he'd repeatedly advised his boss to have nothing to do with him, but to no avail. (In 2006 – the same year that Clinton accepted a $25,000 Epstein donation to his foundation – the latter was charged in Florida with 'procuring a minor for prostitution'.) A Clinton spokesman repeated the ex-president's insistence that he'd never visited the island and provided Vanity Fair with details of his movements at the time that clashed with Band's chronology.
