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Global news and current events
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Four of Europe's most powerful nations — France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom — have jointly criticised Israel's proposed death penalty legislation, warning that the bill carries a "de facto discriminatory character" that would disproportionately affect Palestinian prisoners.
One Nation has claimed the South Australian seat of MacKillop, giving the party its third seat in the state's lower house and cementing a remarkable expansion of minor party representation in Australian politics. Jason Virgo, a former immigration detention system worker on Christmas Island, won the rural electorate.
Dezi Freeman, the man accused of shooting dead two police officers at Porepunkah in north-east Victoria last August, has been killed by armed police after a seven-month manhunt that gripped the state. Victorian police confirmed the shooting occurred shortly after 8.30am on Monday at a rural property where Freeman was believed to have been hiding in a shipping container.
Pop superstar Kylie Minogue has been named as the headline act for the 2026 AFL grand final pre-match entertainment, making her the first Australian artist to headline the event since 2021. The announcement ends a five-year stretch during which international acts were chosen over homegrown talent.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has renewed his calls for new Democratic Party leadership, declaring that the party has failed this moment and needs a generational renewal to remain competitive. His comments come amid deepening divisions within the party over strategy and direction.
Winds from Tropical Cyclone Narelle have stirred up rust-coloured dust from iron-rich soil across Western Australia, turning the sky an eerie, apocalyptic blood red that has been compared to the surface of Mars. The dramatic atmospheric phenomenon follows the cyclone's devastating landfall that left the town of Exmouth cut off.
Israel's military posted two images purporting to show Ali Choeib, one of the journalists killed in a recent airstrike on southern Lebanon, wearing a Hezbollah uniform. The New York Times has confirmed that one of the images was digitally altered, raising serious questions about Israel's justification for targeting press members.
The Pentagon is actively considering a ground campaign in Iran lasting several weeks, according to multiple US media reports, marking a dramatic escalation that would make this the largest American ground operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Thousands of additional US troops have already arrived in the region as Iran issues increasingly stark warnings about the consequences of a land invasion.
Participants in Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme are waiting more than 100 days for vital support equipment due to systemic delays in processing plan variations, with one man waiting six months for a wheelchair that was obsolete by the time it arrived.
Canada's New Democratic Party has chosen Avi Lewis, a member of one of the country's most prominent leftist political families, as its new leader in an attempt to rebuild after voters abandoned the party for Mark Carney's resurgent Liberals.
Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have hands full of blood, in what is widely seen as a direct rebuke to the Trump administration.
Foreign ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are meeting in Islamabad in the most significant diplomatic effort yet to prepare the ground for de-escalation in the Iran war, as the conflict enters its second month with no ceasefire in sight.
The safety of rideshare services in Australia has come under intense scrutiny after a baby was killed in a Perth crash and the Albanese government warned platforms like Uber are failing to properly respond to predatory drivers.
A man has been arrested after a car struck multiple pedestrians in Derby city centre on Saturday, leaving several people with serious injuries.
Victoria and Tasmania have announced free public transport in response to soaring fuel prices caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with Victoria offering free travel for all of April and Tasmania extending the measure through to July.
Vice President JD Vance received about 53 percent of votes in the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio coming in second at 35 percent.
The war against Iran escalated sharply on Saturday as Iran-allied Houthi forces formally entered the conflict and Israel intensified its bombardment of Tehran, while separate airstrikes in Iraq killed three Popular Mobilization Forces fighters and two Iraqi police officers.
Senior shadow minister Andrew Hastie has warned that the credibility of the United States is being damaged and that Australians may be losing faith in the alliance, in some of the most pointed comments from a senior Coalition figure on the state of the US relationship.
The Northern Territory coroner will investigate after two people died in custody within a single week, with a 26-year-old man dying in a cell at Darwin correctional centre on Saturday morning just days after a 25-year-old man died in a police car on Tuesday.
Chinese students continue to provide the largest share of international student revenue for Australian universities, but experts are warning that enrolment numbers are set to decline significantly — potentially threatening the financial model that much of the sector depends on.
Ukraine has finalized air defense agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia during President Zelensky's visit to the Middle East, marking a strategic pivot as the country seeks to transform itself from a recipient of military aid into a supplier of defense technology.
Three journalists have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese officials and broadcasting networks. Israel has confirmed the strike, claiming one of the reporters — Ali Shoeib from the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV — was a Hezbollah operative.
Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched their first direct missile attack on Israel, marking a significant escalation as the Middle East war enters its second month. The Iran-backed group has also raised the spectre of disrupting a second crucial waterway, threatening further damage to an already strained global economy.
FBI Director Kash Patel is pushing to release documents related to a Democratic lawmaker who has not been accused of wrongdoing, a move that has raised serious concerns within the Bureau about the politicisation of federal law enforcement, according to the Washington Post.
The Trump administration has quietly shifted the tone of its signature mass deportation campaign after two US citizens were killed by immigration officers in January, triggering a sweeping backlash. Kristi Noem was replaced by Markwayne Mullin as DHS secretary, and border patrol commander Gregory Bovino was demoted.
At least 22 migrants died after spending six days at sea off the Greek coast, with survivors telling authorities that the bodies of those who perished were thrown overboard by people smugglers. Poor weather, a lack of food, and no access to clean water contributed to the deaths, the Greek coastguard confirmed.
French police stopped an apparent bomb attack outside a US bank in Paris early Saturday morning when they arrested a man about to set off a homemade explosive device outside a Bank of America building in the city's prestigious 8th arrondissement, just streets from the Champs-Elysees.
Millions of Americans are taking to the streets on Saturday for the third No Kings protest against the Trump administration, with organisers expecting it to become the largest demonstration in American history. More than 3,000 events are planned across all 50 states, with parallel protests in 16 countries.
Large crowds have gathered in central London for a march organised by the Together Alliance against the far right, with a separate Palestine Coalition event also taking place. The demonstration comes amid rising tensions over inflammatory remarks by senior Conservative politicians.
Mexico has launched a massive measles vaccination campaign targeting 2.5 million jabs per week after tens of thousands of suspected cases overwhelmed the country's public health infrastructure. The response has been encouraging but also worrisome, with officials racing to contain the outbreak before it spreads further.
Hundreds of oil and gas licences granted for new projects in the North Sea under the Conservatives have so far produced only 36 days worth of gas, according to new analysis that casts serious doubt on claims that more drilling would help cut energy bills or boost security.
The Prime Minister has announced new emergency powers to help private importers bring more fuel into Australia, while calling out fuel hoarders who are exacerbating the crisis through panic buying as diesel prices remain above three dollars a litre.
Pope Leo has travelled to Monaco by helicopter for his first European trip since being elected pontiff, making it the first papal visit to the tiny principality since Pope Paul III stopped by in 1538 — nearly five centuries ago.
A Brisbane-based visual artist has been contacted by police and told he could face jail time for artworks made in support of Palestine, in what appears to be one of the first enforcement actions under Queensland's new hate speech laws.
Darwin's ambulance service has reached what officials describe as a critical failure point after 42 per cent of Triple Zero calls were abandoned overnight, with 61 emergency calls going unanswered as the system buckled under pressure.
The Victorian government has announced sweeping changes to the state's rental laws that will take effect next week, making it easier and less expensive for prospective tenants to secure housing in one of Australia's tightest rental markets.
Britain is just weeks away from medicine shortages ranging from common painkillers to cancer treatments if the Iran war continues, according to pharmaceutical experts. The conflict has already disrupted supplies of oil, gas, crop fertiliser and helium, and health essentials could be next.
Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack targeting Israel, opening yet another front in the rapidly expanding conflict engulfing the Middle East. The attack comes as US and Israeli forces continue their campaign against Iran's military and nuclear infrastructure.
A bipartisan group of US senators has arrived in Taiwan to urge the passage of a defence spending bill, in a show of support that comes as Chinese military pressure on the island continues to intensify.
Greece's population could drop by as much as 20 per cent by 2050, with the government declaring the accelerating demographic decline a "national threat" as rural villages and island communities steadily empty out.
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle was downgraded to a tropical low on Saturday morning after making landfall in Western Australia on Friday as a category 3 system, but authorities warned storm-ravaged communities not to let their guard down as destructive winds and flash flooding continued to threaten inland areas and Perth.
A combined Iranian missile and drone attack struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, injuring at least 12 American troops and damaging two Air Force refueling aircraft in what officials described as one of the most serious breaches of US air defenses since the war with Iran began a month ago.
The Australian government will take on the financial risk of importing essential products affected by the war in the Middle East, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing new fuel security powers on Saturday after a month of soaring diesel and petrol prices and widespread shortages at service stations.
A new investigation has revealed that Israel's expanded invasion of southern Lebanon was at least 12 days in the making, with bridges systematically targeted to effectively cut off the south from the rest of the country.
President Trump on Friday directed the Department of Homeland Security to pay thousands of airport security officers, as TSA staff shortages continued to create wildly inconsistent wait times at airports across the country.
The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran expanded dramatically on Friday with strikes hitting major steel plants and other vital industrial infrastructure, while rescue workers in south Tehran continued pulling survivors from buildings hit by earlier missile strikes.
While the world's attention remains fixed on the sprawling war in the Middle East, another conflict between nuclear-armed Pakistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is edging toward a dangerous threshold, with Afghanistan ranked number one on the global terrorism index.
House Republicans have rejected a Senate-passed measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security, dimming prospects for a quick resolution to the government shutdown that has crippled airports across the country and left TSA workers without pay.
The United States and Israel struck two Iranian nuclear facilities on Friday in a dramatic escalation of the war, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at a G7 meeting in France that Washington expects the operation to conclude in "weeks, not months" without ground troops.
A senior Australian defence official has warned that abandoning the AUKUS submarine deal with the United States and United Kingdom would leave Australia with no submarine capability at all, declining to publicly contemplate any alternative plan.