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Israel targets Hezbollah in Lebanese capital while hospital director and six colleagues reportedly killed in north, with more medics and UN peacekeepers among other casualtiesA powerful airstrike targeted central Beirut on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.At least four people were killed and 33 wounded in the attack in Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood,...

Ukrainian president calls testing of nuclear-capable weapon on his country’s territory an ‘international crime’Vladimir Putin has vowed to launch more strikes using an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile as Ukraine decried the testing of the nuclear-capable weapon on its territory as an “international crime”.Speaking at a defence conference on Friday, Putin contested US claims that Russia possessed only a “handful” of the high-speed ballistic missiles,...

President-elect picks Fox News personalities and key loyalists as he looks to fill crucial agency and advisory rolesIn a flurry of announcements late Friday evening, Donald Trump released his picks for some of the most important agency and advisory roles in the country, further revealing his preference for Fox News personalities and those that are loyal to him. Continue reading...

Cool change expected to push through state late on Saturday, bringing intense rain and thunderstorms across the wider region into next weekGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastExtreme fire danger alerts are in place in parts of Victoria, as swathes of south-east Australia continue to swelter through a heatwave sweeping across the region.However, the weather system driving the warm conditions...

This blog is now closed. Read our latest story hereTrump picks hedge-fund investor Scott Bessent for treasury secretaryTrump selects key Project 2025 figure Russ Vought to head budget officeIn a new interview on Friday, Matt Gaetz revealed that he will not be returning to Congress next year.Speaking to conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk, Gaetz, who withdrew his attorney general nomination yesterday, said:“I’m still...

Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, commerce and Treasury nominees respectively, are sure to ignore economist’s warnings and follow Trump’s leadCertain events happen during every presidential campaign. The parties crown their candidates. The candidates debate on live TV, with millions watching. Tens of millions heads to the polls. And at some point in this process, Jamie Dimon will be tipped as the next Treasury secretary.Sure...

Job is one of most powerful in Washington with huge influence over US economy and financial marketsTrump’s administration and White House staffing picks and likely contenders – so farDonald Trump nominated Scott Bessent, a longtime hedge-fund investor who taught at Yale University for several years, to be his treasury secretary, a statement from Trump confirmed on Friday. The job is one of the most...

Vought, who led Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term, deeply involved in rightwing manifestoDonald Trump has chosen Russ Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, to be director of the US Office of Management and Budget, a powerful agency that helps decide the president’s policy priorities and how to pay for them.Vought, who...

Gus gained 3.5kg during his 20-day stopover before being released back into the Southern Ocean on WednesdayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGus, an emperor penguin who gained international fame after travelling about 3,000km from Antarctica to the West Australian coast, is on his long way home after being released into the Southern Ocean.Emperor penguins can travel up to 1,600km...

‘I served in Congress,’ Gaetz’s page says. ‘Trump nominated me to be US attorney general (that didn’t work out).’The Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has made his first big move since withdrawing from consideration to be Donald Trump’s attorney general – by starting an account on Cameo, the website that lets ordinary people pay for video messages from celebrities, dubious or otherwise.The news website Semafor...

Loyalist lawmakers give green light to constitutional amendment as authoritarian president, 79, tightens gripNicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of “co-president” and boosting the pair’s joint control over the state.Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the...

New research revealed canals used for about 1,000 years to channel and catch freshwater fish on the Yucatán peninsulaLong before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán peninsula.Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published on Friday in the journal...

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of operation bringing increasing numbers of Indians into USA jury has convicted two men of human smuggling charges after an Indian family froze to death attempting to cross the Canada-US border.After a brief deliberation on Friday, a jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota delivered the verdict in the case against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national...

In preparation for plan, Ontario has indemnified itself from liability if cyclists are killed on streets that once had bike lanesRemoving bike lanes from busy city streets will increase traffic congestion, according to a Canadian government document leaked amid a furious row over urban infrastructure.The findings, which come as the province of Ontario goes to war over cycling infrastructure in Toronto, undercut claims that...

Kremlin dispatched weapons as payment for 10,000 troops deployed to support war in Ukraine, says South Korean officialRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesRussia has sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea have said.The shipments were the latest expression...

Simone White was one of six people to die in suspected methanol poisoning incident in Vang ViengTributes have been paid to the “beautiful, kind and loving” British tourist Simone White, one of six people to die in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos.The six died after allegedly being served drinks laced with methanol in Vang Vieng, a town popular with backpackers. These include...

Government protests ‘unfriendly and inappropriate’ comments by French president caught on cameraHaiti’s government has summoned the French ambassador to the country to protest about “unfriendly and inappropriate” comments from Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera calling the country’s leaders “morons”.The French president had on Wednesday described the decision of the Caribbean country’s transitional presidential council to oust the prime minister earlier this month...

Trudeau adviser shuts down foreign ministry’s allegations that Indian government was behind intimidation plotCanada, which expelled six Indian diplomats over allegations they were involved in a plot against Sikh separatists, has denied it has evidence Narendra Modi was linked to violence on Canadian soil.The Canadian foreign ministry last month alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in Modi’s government, was behind a campaign of...

Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation says the development will help Indigenous women stay in the increasingly unaffordable regional citySign up for the Rural Network email newsletterTraditional owners have partnered with community housing providers in central Victoria to build a new housing project aimed at addressing the high rates of homelessness faced by Aboriginal women.The development, named Burnayi Lurnayi, meaning “young women” in Dja...

Labor and Coalition would have missed out on $4.1m and $4.7m in donations after public funding boost, while the Greens would have been $2.9m better offGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Greens and independent MPs who ran low-cost campaigns have emerged as the biggest winners from Labor’s proposed donation cap and increased public funding of elections, data shows.According to...

Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their countryMiddle East crisis – live updatesUK politics live – latest updatesHungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the...

Stabbings and car rammings raise fears that China’s strained social safety net is leading to growing violenceChina is grappling with a spate of violent rampages that have left dozens of people dead, sparking a conversation about whether “revenge against society” attacks are becoming more common.On 19 November, a 39-year-old man drove a car into a group of people near a school in Changde, a...

Home secretary tells BBC that government is ‘strengthening enforcement arrangements around the rules’Polly Toynbee has written today about this week’s farming protests, asking how will we ever make tax fairer amid such grumbling?Incidentally, we are anticipating that Keir Starmer, between 11am and noon, will be facing interviews on six different BBC regional radio stations. These media rounds have historically turned out a lot trickier...

Nato and Ukraine to hold talks in Brussels on Tuesday after Russia fired experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missileSee all our Russia-Ukraine war coverageRussia’s use of an experimental hypersonic missile to hit Ukraine was a “terrible escalation” in the war, German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Friday.The deployment of the new weapon showed “how dangerous this war is”, Scholz said in a speech, according to Agence...