World

Three Mexican men sentenced to 158 years for murder of Australian brothers and US friend

A court in Ensenada, Mexico, has sentenced three Mexican men to 158 years and nine months in prison for the murders of Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad, bringing a close to a case that drew international attention and prompted debate about tourist safety in the region.

17 Oct·2 min·8 sources

OECD chief Cormann warns Australian parties against adopting populist migration caps

Mathias Cormann, the former Australian finance minister and now secretary general of the OECD, will deliver a sharp warning to Australia's mainstream political parties on Saturday night: do not mimic populist policies such as arbitrary migration caps to address cost-of-living grievances. In an address to the Centre for Independent Studies, he will argue that the only reliable long-term solution is boosting productivity to deliver housing, real wage growth and lower energy costs.

Suspicious mail hits multiple congressional offices, triggering evacuations

Multiple congressional offices in Florida, South Dakota and California reported receiving suspicious mail on Friday, including envelopes containing unknown substances, as federal authorities investigate a wider series of mailings targeting lawmakers and election officials nationwide.

German steakhouse heiress trial reveals ties to spy scandal

The trial of Christina Block, heir to Germany's Block House steakhouse chain, has laid bare allegations of a violent cross-border child abduction orchestrated with the help of an Israeli security firm and connections to former secret agents, triggering Germany's biggest espionage scandal in recent history. The case took a dramatic turn when investigators stumbled on evidence that led to the arrest of August Hanning, a former German intelligence chief, on charges of treason and espionage.

Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew Quinn to step down in November

U.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matthew C. Quinn will leave his post on Nov. 7, 2026, after 18 months in the role, he announced in a letter to agency personnel on Friday. Quinn said the decision was partly for personal reasons and partly because he believes the agency is well-positioned for the future.

Trump suspends Russia sanctions as Zelenskyy warns move will intensify war

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order putting on hold a sweeping new package of Russia sanctions passed by Congress, a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said would reward Vladimir Putin and intensify the Kremlin's war. The suspension came two days before the sanctions were due to take effect and as Russia launched what Zelenskyy described as one of its worst strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

17 Oct·3 min·14 sources

Transport delays expected as Auckland's 'super Saturday' of sports and concerts converge

Auckland Transport has warned passengers to expect delays as tens of thousands of people head to what has been dubbed a 'super Saturday of sport and sounds,' with the A-League season opener and multiple sold-out concerts scheduled across the city on the same day.

17 Oct·1 min

Steele-John accuses Greens faction of 'nasty political games' and denies being on leave

Greens senator Jordon Steele-John has accused an internal faction of playing 'nasty political games' and disputed reports that he is on leave, pushing back against leader David Shoebridge as four West Australian Greens MPs called on the party to publish key findings from the investigation into allegations about his conduct.

17 Oct·2 min·7 sources

Trump in Georgia Claims Ossoff's Election Illegitimate, Touts Unfulfilled Pledges

Donald Trump used a rally in north Georgia to again claim that the 2020 election in the state was fraudulent, alleging that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff was never legitimately elected. Speaking to about 1,200 supporters at Dalton municipal airport, Trump also touted unfulfilled foreign investment pledges, defended the Iran war amid rising fuel costs, and dismissed criticism over the cost of living as 'Democratic propaganda.'

Mortgage repayments cheaper than rent in dozens of Australian suburbs, analysis finds

High rents and falling property prices have opened a rare window for Australian tenants to become homeowners, with mortgage repayments now cheaper than rent in dozens of suburbs, according to an analysis by Guardian Australia of Cotality data.

Albanian student protests spread to new cities as PM blames 'foreign hands'

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has again blamed foreign interference for the violence sweeping student-led protests, as demonstrations spread beyond Tirana to Elbasan, Shkodra and Korca on Friday. Police clashed with protesters outside the education ministry for a fourth consecutive day, using water cannon and tear gas, and said 160 people had been detained over alleged acts of violence the previous evening.

Italy probes Israeli defense minister over abuse of Gaza flotilla activists

Italian prosecutors have placed Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and 12 senior military, police and prison officials under investigation over suspected torture, kidnapping, personal injury, robbery and damage linked to the interception of Gaza-bound solidarity boats in 2025 and 2026, widening a probe that previously focused on far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Sydney's historic Wentworth Park greyhound track holds final race meeting before demolition

Thousands packed into Wentworth Park in inner-west Sydney on Friday night for the final greyhound race meeting at the historic track, which will now be demolished and returned to parkland. The end of an era for an Australian sporting landmark saw the Million Dollar Chase, the world's richest greyhound race, won by Magical Ang.

17 Oct·2 min·2 sources

Wallabies 'better chance' of winning World Cup than Bledisloe, analyst argues after 43-21 sweep

Days after the All Blacks completed a 43-21 Bledisloe Cup sweep in Sydney, a new analysis argues the Wallabies have a better chance of winning next year's home World Cup than reclaiming the trans-Tasman trophy, with Saturday's defeat potentially a blessing in disguise for the tournament draw. Player ratings have delivered a withering verdict on the performance, and former Wallabies greats are split on whether the 24-year drought can be broken.

17 Oct·3 min·15 sources

Caulfield Cup and The Everest underway as punters flock to Melbourne and Sydney tracks

Punters have begun arriving at Caulfield Racecourse and Randwick for a massive day of racing, with the Caulfield Cup and The Everest both scheduled this afternoon. Gates opened at Caulfield at 10.30am for the first race of the day, while the first race at Randwick gets underway half an hour later.

17 Oct·2 min·8 sources

Australia's Test cricket team old enough to be the oldest since the 1920s, Knox argues in new opinion column

The Australian men's Test cricket team is the oldest since the 1920s, but its senior players keep delivering performances that belie their ages, according to a new opinion column by Malcolm Knox published across Nine newspapers.

17 Oct·1 min·3 sources

Katie Zacharia breaks silence after five-day White House tenure ends in sacking

Katie Zacharia has broken her silence after being sacked as White House press secretary just five days into the job, saying the role 'was an honour'. The BBC has confirmed her departure, which came on Saturday, and the White House has not announced a replacement. Her swift exit follows questions about her legal credentials and a debut briefing in which she could not say whether Washington had suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

17 Oct·3 min·6 sources

Neil Diamond Musical 'A Beautiful Noise' Sells Out Melbourne, Heads to Sydney and Brisbane

A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond jukebox musical starring Broadway veteran Will Swenson, has become a box office hit in Melbourne, with the Princess Theatre regularly posting 'House Full' signs and welcoming over 100,000 patrons since its Australian premiere in August. The production will finish its Melbourne run on November 7 before opening in Sydney on November 14, with a Brisbane season scheduled for next year.

Guam on High Alert as Typhoon Champi Strengthens, Evacuations Ordered

Typhoon Champi has intensified into a Category 2 storm as it approaches the Mariana Islands, prompting Guam to impose its highest typhoon readiness condition and order evacuations of coastal areas. The commercial port has been closed and airlines have cancelled flights as the storm threatens to bring destructive winds and severe flooding.

17 Oct·2 min·2 sources

Burst water main leaves hundreds without water in Auckland's New Windsor

A burst water main in the Auckland suburb of New Windsor has left hundreds of households without water, damaged a road and caused a car crash, with repairs expected to take until late Sunday.

17 Oct·1 min

Norte Fire forces 16,000 to evacuate, destroys homes in Orange County

A wildfire driven by fierce Santa Ana winds has damaged at least six homes and led to the evacuation of approximately 16,000 residents in Southern California's Orange County, fire officials reported Friday. Known as the Norte Fire, the blaze started in the coastal city of San Clemente and spread rapidly into nearby San Juan Capistrano, growing to an estimated 465 acres (188 hectares) according to the Orange County Fire Authority, while the state's Cal Fire agency put the size at about 570 acres (231 hectares). More than 500 firefighters were working to contain the fire, which remained at zero percent containment by Friday afternoon.

17 Oct·3 min·7 sources

Great Barrier Reef antler coral overfished by 30 per cent as Fisheries Queensland withholds investigation outcome

Fisheries Queensland has confirmed it investigated an overharvesting of coral on the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef but has declined to share the outcome of its inquiry, prompting calls from scientists and conservation groups to rethink how the commercial coral harvest is managed.

Brazil court orders Meta to give Lula and Bolsonaro equal treatment on Instagram

Brazil's top electoral court has ordered Meta to immediately adopt measures ensuring equal treatment of the two presidential candidates on its platforms, after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva filed a complaint accusing the company of biased algorithms, and a newspaper reported that Meta employees internally acknowledged Lula's Instagram accounts were negatively affected by restrictions.

Houthis fire missiles at Aden airport day after palace attack

Yemen's internationally recognised government says the Houthis fired two missiles at Aden International Airport on Friday, a day after a deadly attack on the presidential palace in the port city, as the country's civil war reignites on multiple fronts.

Healey says Heathrow third runway has 'always been a case for growth' as PM holds back

Chancellor John Healey has declared that a third runway at Heathrow has 'always been a case for growth', striking a markedly more supportive tone than Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who has declined to back the expansion. Speaking at the IMF meetings in Bangkok, Healey said airports had been 'a big part of jobs and growth' in recent decades, as the government reviews responses to a closed public consultation on the project.

16 Oct·3 min·4 sources

Chinese nursery owner jailed for life over lead poisoning of more than 200 children

The owner of a kindergarten in northwestern China has been sentenced to life in prison after more than 200 children and staff were poisoned with lead-tainted food, with five other employees receiving prison terms of up to 15 years.

Man Hospitalised After Dog Attack in Brisbane's North; Trump Press Secretary Fired

A man has been hospitalised after being mauled by two dogs at a park in Brisbane's north, while in the United States, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia has been fired following a tumultuous week at the White House.

16 Oct·1 min·6 sources

A-League opens with Sydney derby stalemate

The A-League Men season kicked off on Friday night with a Sydney derby that failed to ignite, as Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers played out a goalless draw at Allianz Stadium. The match, which pitted last year's grand finalists against the wooden spooners, was marked by cautious tactics and few clear chances, leaving both coaches acknowledging it was not a spectacle for the fans.

16 Oct·1 min·3 sources

Lula reverses stance, supports lowering criminal age to 16 in Brazil election gamble

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has reversed his long-standing opposition to lowering the age of criminal responsibility, announcing he now supports reducing it to 16 for heinous crimes. The shift, made during a televised interview with less than two weeks until the presidential runoff, is widely seen as an effort to close a 2.2 million-vote gap with his far-right opponent, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

Mass flying fox deaths along east coast threaten forest ecosystems, experts warn

A suspected mass starvation event of grey-headed flying foxes along the east coast of Australia has overwhelmed wildlife carers and prompted warnings that the loss of the keystone pollinator could disrupt entire forest ecosystems. Experts say drought conditions have caused a lack of nectar on flowering trees, forcing bats to seek food closer to the ground and leading to widespread malnutrition and death.

Baucau's Hotel Flamboyan: a survivor's account of Timor-Leste's occupation-era abuses

Hotel Flamboyan in Baucau, Timor-Leste's second-largest city, presents an elegant colonial facade. But for Maria de Fátima, it is the site of more than two decades of abuse at the hands of Indonesian soldiers during the occupation, which she has recounted in a new interview.

Geopolitics

Finland Navy Patrols Shadow War Beneath the Baltic Sea

Aboard the Finnish fast attack craft FNS Pori, the grey zone of almost-war is a daily reality. As Russia constantly tests how far it can go in the Gulf of Finland, Finnish sailors train to operate not just with state-of-the-art sensors but also with paper charts, rehearsing for a scenario where GPS is denied. The top brass of Finland's military wants the world to understand the acuteness of the danger.

Ocasio-Cortez transfers $1m to Michigan Senate candidate El-Sayed in progressive push

US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has transferred $1 million from her own campaign to support Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, marking a major progressive intervention in the tightly contested race. Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the donation on Friday, saying she is 'leaving everything I can on the field' to counter what she described as smears against El-Sayed's Muslim faith, Egyptian heritage and support for Palestine.

Australia on Track for Wettest El Niño Year on Record as Storms Persist

Australia is set to record its wettest El Niño year on record, with an ongoing outbreak of showers and thunderstorms forecast to affect more than half the country during the next seven days, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The unusually wet spring comes despite a strong Pacific El Niño and a dry Indian Ocean phase that have historically produced widespread drought.

16 Oct·3 min

Lawsuit against private equity billionaire Leon Black dismissed as plaintiff cites medical crisis

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing private equity billionaire Leon Black of rape after the plaintiff, known only as Jane Doe, said she was medically incapable of continuing and at risk of acute psychiatric crisis including suicide. The dismissal, requested by Doe herself, comes without any settlement, according to Black’s legal team, and does not resolve Black’s separate battle with the US House of Representatives, which has voted to hold him in criminal contempt for defying subpoenas related to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Copper thefts leave more than 100 km of Perth roads in darkness, costing taxpayers millions

More than 100 kilometres of major roads and paths across Perth remain unlit, some for years, due to widespread copper theft, with police charging three people this week as they step up scrutiny of scrap metal recyclers.

Wu-Tang Clan’s Fabled Album ‘Once Upon A Time in Shaolin’ Heard in Podcast Clips

The notoriously secretive Wu-Tang Clan album ‘Once Upon A Time in Shaolin’ has finally been heard by a wider audience, with the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out publishing two snippets of the exclusive record and detailing its long, winding history from pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to the US government to the crypto art collective PleasrDAO.

Kenya records third Ebola case as DRC outbreak surpasses 9,000 infections

Kenya has confirmed its third case of the Bundibugyo virus disease, a strain of Ebola, in a 65-year-old woman who is a close relative of the first two patients. The new case was detected on Friday, 10 days after Kenya reported its first Ebola death in Nairobi, linked to the ongoing epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has now recorded more than 9,000 cases and over 4,300 deaths since May.

Brazil's Amazon deforestation hits lowest on record as knife-edge runoff looms

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1988, new official data shows, giving President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a boost days before a presidential run-off in which the future of the rainforest is a defining issue.

16 Oct·3 min·6 sources

Expert tells NSW panel Lue school should be moved if Bowdens silver mine approved

A scientist has told the NSW Independent Planning Commission that a public school near the proposed Bowdens silver and lead mine should be relocated, warning the project poses an unacceptable lead exposure risk to children.

Fire ants re-infest Queensland organic farms after 14-month treatment suspension

Red imported fire ants have re-infested organic farms in south-east Queensland that have gone untreated for 14 months, after baiting was suspended on export-certified properties because the baits contained genetically modified ingredients. The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has confirmed re-infestation across parts of a 1,110-hectare zone, and a newly approved organic-compliant treatment is only now arriving at Brisbane port.

16 Oct·3 min·2 sources

New US bill seeks to guarantee ownership rights for video game buyers

Representative Ritchie Torres of New York has introduced the Power To The Players Act, a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish regulations guaranteeing consumers ownership of the video games they purchase rather than a revocable license. The legislation comes amid growing frustration over games that become unplayable when publishers shut down the servers required to run them, with the bill specifically citing NBA 2K25 as an example of the problem.

Steve Smith's fielding wizardry can be learned, say coaches after record Test haul

Steve Smith's remarkable fielding display in the first Test against South Africa, which included four slip catches and a record 224 Test catches, is the result of teachable techniques rather than pure instinct, according to cricket experts.

Witnesses and victims find a lifeline in court support volunteers across NSW

A vivid scene in a new feature from the October 17 edition of Good Weekend shows the intense anxiety victims and witnesses can face in court, and the critical role of volunteer support officers. Set at Newcastle’s regional courthouse, the story follows Jennifer, a court support officer, as she helps a young woman who is about to give evidence in a sexual assault trial and is visibly distressed by the defendant's presence.

16 Oct·1 min·3 sources

Victorian selective school debate heats up as thousands miss out on Mac.Robertson places

Thousands of students miss out on a place at Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School every year, intensifying a political debate over Victoria’s four selective-entry schools that is set to become a state election issue. With only 1000 new spots available across the network each year and thousands sitting the entry exam, the Liberal opposition has promised to establish new selective schools, while critics argue the system entrenches social segregation.

EV boom sends used petrol and diesel car prices tumbling as listings hit record high

A surge in electric vehicle uptake driven by cheaper new models and rising fuel costs has triggered a flood of used petrol and diesel cars onto the Australian second-hand market, pushing listings to a record high and forcing sellers to cut prices to offload their old automobiles.

16 Oct·1 min·3 sources

Damned if you work, damned if you retire: The Baby Boomers stuck in a Catch-22

A new Good Weekend feature profiles Baby Boomers who continue working well past traditional retirement age, examining the financial and personal pressures that keep them in the workforce. The story centres on Theo Newbegin, a 67-year-old who works full-time as a roofer each morning before clocking on for an eight-hour forklift shift at the SPC canning factory in Shepparton, Victoria.