Australia news live: delays up to 70 minutes on Sydney trains as industrial action begins; Hume says Coalition would cut ‘bloated bureaucracy’

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‘Passengers should expect delays, service cancellations and large service gaps’ across Sydney today, NSW TrainLink warns. Follow today’s news live

Wong ‘absolutely confident’ government can work with Trump as US president

Moving to another topic, Penny Wong was asked about her invite to Donald Trump’s inauguration in the US, and responded:

Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States, and I’m honoured, on behalf of the country, to have been invited to his inauguration.

This includes humane treatment and the right to a fair trial. So that is their obligation, [and] we will look at the facts when they have been ascertained.

But I want to be clear, all options are on the table. Those options include expelling the ambassador and recalling Australia’s ambassador in Russia … I need, as the foreign minister, to identify and ascertain the facts beforehand.

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Israel and Hamas Near Agreement on Cease-Fire Deal, Qatar Says – The New York Times

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  1. Israel and Hamas Near Agreement on Cease-Fire Deal, Qatar Says  The New York Times
  2. Blinken offers most detailed picture to date of post-war Gaza plans  CNN
  3. First Thing: Hopes rise for Gaza ceasefire as Blinken says it is ‘closer than it’s ever been’  The Guardian US
  4. Blinken slams Israeli and Palestinian leadership, says Israelis 'must abandon' annexation  Haaretz
  5. Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal 'right on the brink', says Blinken - live updates  BBC.com
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Police seeking to arrest South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol clash with supporters

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Officials move to detain impeached president after previous failure to execute warrant

South Korean investigators seeking to arrest the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, have clashed with his supporters as they launched a fresh attempt to execute an arrest warrant over insurrection accusations related to his 3 December declaration of martial law.

Video footage showed investigating officers from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) trying to push through a crowd of Yoon’s supporters gathered outside his hillside villa in Seoul, where he has been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire and a small army of personal security.

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FBI releases more details on how New Orleans attacker planned his rampage

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Authorities piece together timeline of radicalization of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the US army veteran behind the attack

Before plowing a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans and killing 14 people, the man who carried out the Islamic State group-inspired attack had researched how to access a balcony on the city’s famed Bourbon Street and looked up information about a similar attack at a Christmas market in Germany, the FBI said.

Nearly two weeks after Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rampage, the FBI continues to uncover new information detailing the extensive planning by the 42-year-old US army veteran who scouted out the area multiple times in the months leading up to the attack. Authorities have also been piecing together a timeline of his radicalization.

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NATO launches new naval operation in Baltic Sea after severing of cables – The Washington Post

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  1. NATO launches new naval operation in Baltic Sea after severing of cables  The Washington Post
  2. International underwater cable attacks by Russia, China are no ‘mere coincidence’ warns EU’s top diplomat  Fox News
  3. News: NATO launches 'Baltic Sentry' to increase critical infrastructure security, 14-Jan.-2025  NATO HQ
  4. US allies' undersea cables are cut, world looks to Russia and China  NBC News
  5. The shadowy war on subsea cables and pipelines  Financial Times
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France’s Bayrou buys himself time with overture to Socialists – POLITICO Europe

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  1. France’s Bayrou buys himself time with overture to Socialists  POLITICO Europe
  2. French Socialist Party raises threat of backing no-confidence vote against government  Reuters.com
  3. French Prime Minister Signals He Will Revisit Unpopular Retirement Law  The New York Times
  4. France’s new prime minister says he'll renegotiate a contested plan to raise the retirement age  The Associated Press
  5. French PM Bayrou to re-open talks on Macron's unpopular pension reform  FRANCE 24 English
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Russia is on pace to run out of financial reserves by this fall, which would cripple war efforts, economist says – Business Insider

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  1. Russia is on pace to run out of financial reserves by this fall, which would cripple war efforts, economist says  Business Insider
  2. Russia's Hidden War Debt Creates a Looming Credit Crisis  The Moscow Times
  3. Russia Inflation Set to Jump at Year-End as Ukraine War Pushes Up Prices  Bloomberg
  4. Russian Economy Time Bomb: Putin Warned of 'Seismically Disruptive' War Debt  Newsweek
  5. Russia’s economic dilemmas give Trump important leverage in negotiations on Ukraine. But will he use it?  Chatham House
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Who is Tulip Siddiq, niece of deposed Bangladeshi PM who quit Treasury role?

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Former Labour minister’s family background is indelibly bound up with Bangladesh

When Keir Starmer became the Labour leader in 2020, Tulip Siddiq described him in her local paper as a “good friend through thick and thin”.

On Tuesday, she found out where the limits of that friendship lay after the prime minister accepted her resignation from the government after weeks of revelations about Siddiq’s closeness to her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh.

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