For the past 13 years Stella Assange has been at her husband’s side, first as part of his legal team, then as his wife and mother of his two children.
The 40-year-old human rights lawyer has recently been the public face of Julian Assange’s campaign to win his freedom, as he appealed against his extradition to the United States.
She shared news of his release on X on Tuesday, as well as pictures of her Australian husband calling her while she stood outside Sydney Opera House awaiting his arrival to begin their new life together in Australia.
Mrs Assange said she had flown to Australia on Sunday, with the pair's two sons, Gabriel, seven, and five-year-old Max.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she had not yet told the boys of their father's release as she did not want them “shouting it from the rooftops at any given moment”.
“All I told them was that there was a big surprise on the morning that we left,” she said.
“I told them we were heading to the airport. And we got on the plane and I told them that we were going to visit our family, their cousin, their grandfather and so on.
“Because of the sensitivity around the judge having to sign off the deal we’ve been very careful, just gradually, incrementally telling them information. They are very excited to be in Australia though.”
Sara Gonzalez Devant, as she was then, joined Mr Assange’s legal team in 2011 when he was initially fighting to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault charges.
She changed her name to Stella Moris in 2012, she says, to protect herself and her family while working with Mr Assange.
Born in South Africa to a Spanish mother and Swedish father of Cuban heritage, her American accent was acquired at an international school in Lesotho.
She went on to study for a degree in law and politics at Soas in London, an MSc at Oxford in refugee law, and a master’s in Madrid in public international law.
The couple began a relationship when Mr Assange was in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he had taken refuge during his extradition battle with the Swedish authorities.
Their first son Gabriel was born in 2017, followed by Max two years later, before Mr Assange was kicked out of the embassy and sent to Belmarsh prison.
The couple married in 2022 at the maximum-security jail in south-east London and she wore a dress designed by Vivienne Westwood.
The renowned designer was a friend of the couple and one of the many celebrity backers of Mr Assange. She visited him when he was in the Ecuadorean embassy but he was denied permission to attend her funeral last year.
Ahead of his recent appeal hearing at the High Court in London, Mrs Assange recently said she would “follow him wherever he goes” and said her husband was keen to show his sons his native Australia one day.
Julian Assange released – in pictures
“Julian misses Australia and we’re very keen to travel to Australia with the kids and for him to show his home country to our children,” she said.
When it was announced that he had been granted the right to appeal, Mrs Assange told The National she was confident the decision marked the “beginning of the end” in her husband's long-running battle to avoid extradition to the US.
After news of the 52-year-old's release emerged, she told the BBC he will “be a free man” once a plea deal with the US is “signed off by a judge”.
“The important thing here is that the deal involved time served – that if he signed it, he would be able to walk free,” she said.
“He will be a free man once it has been signed off by a judge and that will happen some time tomorrow.”
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic
John Zubrzycki, Hurst Publishers
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
ICC men's cricketer of the year
2004 - Rahul Dravid (IND) ; 2005 - Jacques Kallis (SA) and Andrew Flintoff (ENG); 2006 - Ricky Ponting (AUS); 2007 - Ricky Ponting; 2008 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI); 2009 - Mitchell Johnson (AUS); 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar (IND); 2011 - Jonathan Trott (ENG); 2012 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL); 2013 - Michael Clarke (AUS); 2014 - Mitchell Johnson; 2015 - Steve Smith (AUS); 2016 - Ravichandran Ashwin (IND); 2017 - Virat Kohli (IND); 2018 - Virat Kohli; 2019 - Ben Stokes (ENG); 2021 - Shaheen Afridi
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
The results of the first round are as follows:
Qais Saied (Independent): 18.4 per cent
Nabil Karoui (Qalb Tounes): 15.58 per cent
Abdelfattah Mourou (Ennahdha party): 12.88 per cent
Abdelkarim Zbidi (two-time defence minister backed by Nidaa Tounes party): 10.7 per cent
Youssef Chahed (former prime minister, leader of Long Live Tunisia): 7.3 per cent
Results
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Company%20profile
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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South Korea
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Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How being social media savvy can improve your well being
Next time when procastinating online remember that you can save thousands on paying for a personal trainer and a gym membership simply by watching YouTube videos and keeping up with the latest health tips and trends.
As social media apps are becoming more and more consumed by health experts and nutritionists who are using it to awareness and encourage patients to engage in physical activity.
Elizabeth Watson, a personal trainer from Stay Fit gym in Abu Dhabi suggests that “individuals can use social media as a means of keeping fit, there are a lot of great exercises you can do and train from experts at home just by watching videos on YouTube”.
Norlyn Torrena, a clinical nutritionist from Burjeel Hospital advises her clients to be more technologically active “most of my clients are so engaged with their phones that I advise them to download applications that offer health related services”.
Torrena said that “most people believe that dieting and keeping fit is boring”.
However, by using social media apps keeping fit means that people are “modern and are kept up to date with the latest heath tips and trends”.
“It can be a guide to a healthy lifestyle and exercise if used in the correct way, so I really encourage my clients to download health applications” said Mrs Torrena.
People can also connect with each other and exchange “tips and notes, it’s extremely healthy and fun”.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- 600-seat auditorium
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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The Byblos iftar in numbers
29 or 30 days – the number of iftar services held during the holy month
50 staff members required to prepare an iftar
200 to 350 the number of people served iftar nightly
160 litres of the traditional Ramadan drink, jalab, is served in total
500 litres of soup is served during the holy month
200 kilograms of meat is used for various dishes
350 kilograms of onion is used in dishes
5 minutes – the average time that staff have to eat