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7913 articles · page 63 of 165 · The World front page
The federal government has announced consultation on reforms that could see perpetrators of financial abuse held liable for tax and social security debts they create as a form of coercive control, with courts potentially given greater flexibility to transfer such debts to the abusive spouse in family law proceedings.
· 2 sourcesA mother charged over the alleged criminal neglect of a baby boy found dead inside a motel room in Adelaide had previously been reported missing in New South Wales five years ago with another child, police have said.
The Northern Territory government will permanently legalise pepper spray for self-defence and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to buy and carry it with parental authorisation, following a trial that Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said had a "99 per cent success rate."
The NSW Supreme Court jury trying former Sydney police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has been told he previously visited the Bungonia farm where he allegedly tried to sink the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a dam, months before the couple were killed.
Radio station 2GB has recorded an interview between breakfast host Ben Fordham and Ben Roberts-Smith ahead of the former commando's landmark trial on five charges of the war crime of murder, with lawyers reviewing the material before it goes to air.
Council red tape is stymieing the right to protest in Australia, a report has found, after Bathurst regional council told a protest organiser she needed a $20m public liability insurance policy to hold a rally in a park. The report, released on Wednesday and co-authored by the Australian Democracy Network and Deakin University's Centre for Law as Protection, also raised concerns about the power of some councils to fine public gatherings held without a permit.
· 2 sourcesThe family of Jayda Allen Bonner, the 21-year-old Yagera woman found dead in a Carlton apartment complex on Saturday, say they are "absolutely crushed and shattered" by her death as a 31-year-old man faces court charged with her murder.
· 7 sourcesIn a field in eastern Ukraine that was occupied by Russian forces four years ago, civilians are now painstakingly digging out landmines by hand. The work, undertaken by volunteers such as 58-year-old Olena Kabanova in the Kharkiv region, reflects the immense scale of contamination that makes vast areas of the country unusable for farming and daily life.
Human rights groups have raised alarm after reports that a 23-year-old Iranian woman, Najmeh Amini, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy over a social media post. She is also serving a separate prison term of more than 12 years on charges including acting against national security.
A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely extended his block on the Trump administration's ban of CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House complex, ruling that the three outlets are likely to succeed on due process and First Amendment claims in their pending lawsuit. The preliminary injunction by US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, replaces a temporary restraining order issued in September.
· 9 sourcesA court in eastern China has sentenced three members of a criminal syndicate to death for running a network of scam centres in Myanmar that generated more than $1.8 billion through fraud, drug trafficking, illegal casinos, and murder.
Florida carried out the execution of James Robertson, 63, on Tuesday, the state's first lethal injection since Tennessee's botched attempt to kill Christa Pike in September intensified scrutiny of capital punishment procedures. Robertson was pronounced dead at 12:32 pm after receiving a three-dose series of lethal drugs at a state prison in Raiford, according to corrections spokesperson Jordan Kirkland, who said the process occurred 'without incident.'
Suspected cholera cases in Yemen have tripled in the past three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as renewed fighting drives more than 200,000 people from their homes into unsanitary displacement camps.
MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum has warned that artificial intelligence has the potential to "change the stakes" for bioweapons development, as his annual threat update painted a picture of an increasingly diverse and dangerous security landscape encompassing far-right terrorism, state-sponsored plots from Iran and Russia, and AI-powered risks.
· 3 sourcesOne Nation NSW leader Mike Newman briefly crashed question time on Wednesday before being escorted from parliament, as Premier Chris Minns stepped up pressure on the populist party to have its policies costed and warned they risked fuelling inflation.
· 3 sourcesArgentina has filed a legal claim with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) seeking to stop oil and gas exploration north of the Falkland Islands, escalating a sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom. The request aims to block activity Buenos Aires says was authorised 'illegally' by London.
· 4 sourcesQueensland Premier David Crisafulli has rejected suggestions his government pushed Brisbane 2032 organising committee chief executive Cindy Hook out of the role, after reports she felt "suffocated" by the administration and had misgivings about the controversial insistence that rowing and canoe events be held on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton.
· 3 sourcesTwo men have been seriously injured after armed fighting broke out in the remote Northern Territory community of Palumpa, 350 kilometres southwest of Darwin, while violent unrest in the nearby troubled community of Wadeye has flared up again, with police arresting a 20-year-old man arrested in connection with the Palumpa incident.
The IMF's latest World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday under the title "Resilience Under Strain, Urgent Choices", has slightly downgraded Australia's growth forecasts for the next two years while still expecting inflation to fall below 3% by next year. Writing in The Guardian's Grogonomics column, Greg Jericho argues the choices the IMF wants made are ones a government hoping to win an election would likely ignore.
· 2 sourcesA 14-year-old student at Clay High School near Jacksonville, Florida, has been arrested for writing a school shooting threat on a bathroom wall and then reporting it to school administrators, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Taiwan has agreed to purchase 30% of the gas from the proposed Alaska LNG project for the next 20 years, a move he said would ensure the pipeline's viability. The announcement came during a campaign rally in Alaska, but the specific terms of the agreement were not immediately clear.
· 2 sourcesJamaica received its first flight of third-country deportations from the United States on Tuesday, when 22 deportees arrived in Kingston. The arrival activates a memorandum signed in June and deepens the Caribbean's role in an expanding US deportation network that human rights groups say raises legal concerns.
Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) on Tuesday indicted 10 former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for systematic abuses against five Indigenous groups in the southeast of the country between 1996 and 2016.
A 32-year-old Chinese microbiology graduate student at the University of Wyoming has been arrested on charges she poisoned a colleague's tea with a chemical purchased on eBay, then tried to flee to China after police questioned her. Aili Wang was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on October 6 and remains jailed without bail, according to court documents.
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez launched a blistering attack on the club's board after Tuesday's 2-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid, saying he expected more investment in the squad and pointing to 'other areas' beyond the manager as responsible for the team's worst start to a league season in 40 years. Former United striker Wayne Rooney said Martinez's comments were excessive and should have been kept internal.
· 2 sourcesTest cricket great Steve Waugh has urged Australia’s selectors to stop “messing around” and give the batting order consistency, days after the team crushed South Africa by 214 runs in Durban to open the three-match series. Waugh’s call comes as captain Pat Cummins indicated the side may reshuffle its top seven for the second Test starting Sunday in Gqeberha.
· 6 sourcesFormer federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has again been asked whether he will stand at the next federal election, this time by ABC journalist Leigh Sales, at the Sydney launch of his memoir. The question was held until the closing minutes of the event, and the column reporting the exchange is headlined around his answer: 'Next year'.
· 3 sourcesTelevision commercials funded by US taxpayers and featuring former President Donald Trump continued airing on Monday, October 12, the day after a federal judge ordered them to be cancelled. US District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order on Sunday evening, ruling that the ads likely violate a US law prohibiting government-funded publicity or propaganda.
Mauritius has imposed a curfew across parts of the country after a police officer's shooting of a woman triggered public unrest overnight, with protesters burning tyres and blocking roads in the capital, Port Louis.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin have reached an agreement on legislation that would ban horse-drawn carriages in Central Park, ending a tourist tradition that has operated for more than 150 years. The bill is scheduled for a City Council vote on October 22 and, if passed, would take effect on June 1, 2028.
· 3 sourcesRedlands mayor Jos Mitchell is on the verge of being removed from office after councillors voted against her extended medical leave, setting up a likely vacancy at the next council meeting.
· 3 sourcesSBS's youth-focused current affairs program The Feed will host a debate between three childfree advocates and three conservative commentators, prompted by Australia's declining birth rate. The participants will discuss the question: 'Why are more people choosing a childfree life, and should having kids still be a priority?'
· 3 sourcesThe A-League Men season begins this weekend after a five-month off-season, with the competition's 12 teams set to play 26 regular-season games each. While that total exceeds the AFL (23), NRL (24) and Super Rugby Pacific (14), critics argue the season is too short by global standards, potentially stifling the development of Australian players.
· 3 sourcesFacing a 10% drop in fostering households since 2021 and an ageing carer population, the UK government launches its first national foster carer recruitment campaign with the goal of creating 10,000 new placements.
The number of patients stranded in NSW hospital beds while awaiting aged care placement has jumped almost 40 per cent in the past year, rising from 761 to 1,063, and a new report projects that figure could exceed 7,000 within a decade if aged care and community services do not keep pace with the ageing population.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has denied being overruled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over the government's handling of a ban on credit card payments to the Australian Taxation Office, after the prime minister's remarks suggested he alone had acted on a business lobbyist's complaint.
· 4 sourcesThe trial of a Ukrainian former special forces officer accused of playing a leading role in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage opened on Wednesday at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court, with the defence calling for the case to be dismissed and prosecutors reading charges of attacks on civilian infrastructure.
· 5 sourcesAn Israeli air strike on a vehicle in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City has killed one person and wounded several others, as attacks continue a year into the ceasefire. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli raids in Ramallah and el-Bireh have wounded a child and two journalists, deepening fears of a new escalation cycle despite the truce.
HBO has confirmed Girls will return for a five-episode limited run, with production beginning in 2027 and most of the original cast on board. Adam Driver, whose breakout role as Adam Sackler earned three consecutive Emmy nominations, was notably absent from the announcement.
· 11 sourcesCornell University has suspended all parties and social events at fraternity houses through the end of the 2026-27 academic year and will give New York state police a role in investigating campus sexual assault reports, the school's latest response to outrage over its handling of a gang rape allegation at an elite men's club.
· 7 sourcesThe High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of a Queensland prisoner seeking to freeze her eggs while incarcerated, quashing a 2024 decision by Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) that automatically refused her application because the procedure was deemed prohibited assisted reproductive technology.
· 7 sourcesAustralian footballers Gianni Stensness and Nestory Irankunda produced standout moments in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich, with Stensness scoring the opening goal and Irankunda setting up Luis Suarez.
· 4 sourcesThe Federal Court has overturned a Commonwealth heritage protection order that halted the $1.3 billion McPhillamys gold mine in central west New South Wales, finding that former environment minister Tanya Plibersek's decision-making was procedurally flawed. Justice James Stellios ruled on Wednesday that the declaration under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act was invalid and must be reconsidered by the current minister, Murray Watt.
· 8 sourcesThe AFL's trade deadline day is underway on October 14, with Essendon pushing to land a star premiership Lion from Brisbane and live coverage tracking the fallout of the Pullman hotel police investigation, including Nick Blakey's expected move to the Kangaroos.
· 3 sourcesAdvocates are urging Australia Post to keep licensed post offices alive in regional towns as a Senate inquiry into its retail network prepares to report this month, with warnings that aging licensees and changing community needs are putting the outlets at risk.
· 2 sourcesA police search and rescue operation is under way in Hawke's Bay for a Taradale High School student who went missing during an overnight school tramping trip in the Ruahine Forest Park.
A 44-year-old Clarkson man has been charged with domestic violence and driving-related offences after a dramatic police takedown on a Mitchell Freeway on-ramp yesterday morning.
· 3 sourcesThe government is launching England's first national foster carer recruitment campaign on Wednesday, aiming to create 10,000 new foster care places by the end of this parliament after the number of fostering households fell 10% since 2021.