Moldova takes difficult step on path to joining EU
The EU is embarking on years of talks aimed at bringing in the two countries as new members.
Australia politics live: Julian Assange leaves Belmarsh prison after plea deal and will return to Australia, WikiLeaks says
WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live
‘It’s just a lazy delay’
Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:
There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.
There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.
I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.
The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.
Continue reading...US couple ‘walked for hours’ before dying in Hajj heat
The two pilgrims' daughter says a tour agency they used had failed to provide basic necessities.
Age anxiety hangs over first Biden-Trump debate
On Thursday, the current president, 81, and his Republican predecessor, 78, will face off in Georgia.
‘No one should judge’ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for accepting deal, Australian MP says
Labor’s Julian Hill says prime minister Anthony Albanese deserves ‘enormous credit’ for pursuing the resolution of Assange’s case
The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be judged poorly “for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home” in light of his poor health, an Australian MP has said.
Australian politicians have reacted cautiously to reports of a plea deal to end the US pursuit of Assange in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables.
Continue reading...Bangladesh’s deadliest executioner dies
The 74-year-old hanged several high-profile figures during his time in prison for murder.
Police investigate possible drug link after four people found dead in Melbourne home
Cause of death of two men, a woman and a boy in Broadmeadows yet to be determined, police say
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
- Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Four people have been found dead in a Melbourne home, including a teenage boy.
Victoria police said the bodies of two men, aged 37 and 32, a woman, 42, and a teenage boy, 17, had been found at a Broadmeadows property early on Tuesday.
Continue reading...‘Julian Assange is free’: Wikileaks founder freed in deal with US
Assange to plead guilty to one charge of espionage and return home to Australia after decades fighting US extradition.
Bill Shorten ‘horrified’ after Coalition and Greens team up and propose delay to NDIS bill
Greens leader Adam Bandt accuses Labor of wanting to make ‘cuts to services’ for disabled people
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
- Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Bill Shorten has accused the Coalition of a “disingenuous” and “lazy” decision on NDIS reforms, after the opposition proposed to team up with the Greens to delay a bill set to save at least $15m a day.
But the minister for government services’ plea to pass the bill before parliament’s winter break has been rebuffed by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, who said it was “appalling” Labor wanted to make “cuts to services” to disabled people.
Continue reading...Set more ambitious climate targets to save Great Barrier Reef, Unesco urges Australia
Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February
- Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
- Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.
The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.
Continue reading...Voice of Baceprot: Indonesia’s female metalheads get set for Glastonbury
The trio will be the first Indonesian band to play the renowned music festival, which gets under way this week.
How German podcast tracked down fugitive militant after 30 years
Daniela Klette had been on the run for more than 30 years, before her arrest in Berlin this year.
Low wages under Tories have pushed 900,000 UK children into poverty, report finds
TUC says party has overseen ‘huge rise’ in poverty, as Resolution Foundation says average wages just £16 a week higher in real terms than in 2010
The crisis of poverty that has taken root in the UK over the past 14 years has been laid bare in two reports that reveal the devastating effects low wages and price increases on the lives of 900,000 children.
With both main parties proposing tough welfare spending plans, reports have highlighted the link between rising child poverty and slow wage growth under five Conservative governments since 2010 – the slowest growth since the second world war.
Continue reading...Louisiana families file lawsuit against Ten Commandments display in schools
Human rights groups also back filing which aims to block state’s new law forcing public schools to showcase text
Several Louisiana families backed by human rights groups have lodged a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the state’s new law forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments.
The suit was filed with the US district court in Baton Rouge on Monday at the start of what is expected to be an epic legal battle that could end up before the US supreme court. Christian nationalists have been itching for this fight, hoping to destroy the country’s longstanding separation of church and state.
Continue reading...Sunak ‘not aware’ of other Tory candidates linked to betting inquiry – BBC.com
- Sunak 'not aware' of other Tory candidates linked to betting inquiry BBC.com
- This betting scandal is the dying gasp of a tawdry Tory government forever tarred by Partygate and sleaze The Guardian
- UK PM Sunak says he will act on gambling investigation findings Reuters UK
- Names of betting scandal Tories 'leaked by Met Police' The Telegraph
- Betting scandal inside the UK's ruling Conservative Party mars election race CNBC
Zelenskiy replaces commander leading war on Russia in eastern Ukraine
Dismissal of Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol comes amid series of personnel changes by Ukrainian president
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has replaced the commander of the Joint Forces Command of Ukraine’s military, after a well-known soldier accused the commander of causing mass casualties in the war with Russia.
In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskiy said Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol had been replaced by Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov, without giving a reason for the shake up.
Continue reading...Austin taps top State Department adviser as Pentagon chief of staff – The Washington Post
- Austin taps top State Department adviser as Pentagon chief of staff The Washington Post
- Chollet 'absolutely unqualified' for new Pentagon role, McCaul says POLITICO
- Senior Blinken aide is taking a top job with Austin after Senate confirmation holdup The Associated Press
- GOP chair rips new Pentagon chief of staff, urges Austin to ‘reconsider’ The Hill
- Top State Department official to become Austin's new chief of staff Defense News
Hunter Biden requests new trial after conviction in gun case
Lawyers for president’s son say Delaware court did not have jurisdiction over case when it proceeded to trial
Lawyers for Hunter Biden have filed a motion requesting a new trial, arguing that a Delaware court did not have jurisdiction over the case when it proceeded to trial.
Biden, the eldest living son of the US president, was found guilty earlier this month on three felony counts related to a handgun purchase while he was a user of crack cocaine.
Continue reading...Israel air raid on Gaza clinic kills senior Palestinian health official
Palestinian rights advocates accuse the Israeli military of pushing to completely destroy the medical system in Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron: win for far left or far right ‘will spark civil war’
French president’s comments made on podcast as RN releases manifesto pledging to ‘limit immigration’
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that the far right National Rally (RN) party and the leftwing New Popular Front coalition – both of which are frontrunners in the parliamentary election – risked bringing “civil war” to France.
Macron told the podcast Generation Do It Yourself that the manifesto of the RN party – which election pollsters put in first place – and their solutions to deal with fears over crime and immigration were based upon “stigmatisation or division”.
Continue reading...