Rage in Greece as second anniversary of train disaster prompts mass protests

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Fallout from collision that left 57 dead in 2023 has put pressure on prime minister amid a growing belief of a cover-up by the authorities

Tens of thousands of people are expected to join protests and strikes as Greece marks the second anniversary of a fatal train crash, the fallout of which has put the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the line of fire.

As experts attributed the disaster to oversights and major systemic failures, organisers vowed that Friday’s demonstrations, which coincide with nationwide industrial action, would be on a scale not seen in years.

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Australia news live: Conroy says Chinese flotilla under ‘unprecedented’ naval surveillance as it sails south of Adelaide

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Safety net for laid off fashion group workers

Workers out of a job after the collapse of fashion retailer Mosiac Group will be guaranteed their entitlements after the federal government fast-tracked access to its worker safety net scheme.

Staff are largely women, many balancing part-time employment with care responsibilities, and highly reliant on their pay, so we want to ensure they have as much certainty as possible around their finances going forward.

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Creative Australia boss forced to refute rumour he had resigned as fallout over Khaled Sabsabi dumping continues

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Adrian Collette sends all-staff email denying that he and the chair of Creative Australia’s board had quit amid calls for resignations

The beleaguered CEO of Creative Australia, Adrian Collette, has quashed rumours that emerged overnight that he and the chair of the body’s board, Robert Morgan, had resigned.

“There is a rumour circulating on social media that Robert Morgan and I have resigned,” said his email to all staff of the government arts funding organisation, sent just after 8.30am on Friday.

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Cyclone Alfred threat eases as BoM says it is now less likely to cross Queensland coast

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Alfred is creating hazardous weather conditions from Townsville south to K’Gari, with gale force winds forecast on the Great Barrier Reef and dangerous surf between Yeppoon and Hervey Bay

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is becoming less likely to make landfall on the Queensland coast after it briefly intensified to a category four.

Alfred briefly strengthened to a category four overnight but has since been downgraded back to a category three.

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Australian politicians unworried by Trump’s ‘what does that mean?’ response to Aukus question

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US president was questioned about defence deal during meeting with UK prime minister Keir Starmer

Australian politicians have played down a slip from Donald Trump, who initially failed to understand a question about Aukus posed by a British reporter.

The US president was questioned about the Australia-UK-US defence deal during a meeting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office.

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No reason for China to apologise to Australia for live-fire drills, ambassador says

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Xiao Qian says exercises in Tasman Sea posed ‘no threat’ to Australia and were ‘a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world’

China doesn’t even need to “think” about apologising over the way it notified Australia about live-fire naval drills off the Australian coast, the country’s ambassador says.

Xiao Qian told the ABC the drills last Friday and Saturday posed “no threat” to Australia and were “a normal kind of practice for many navies in the world”.

He said the notification of the drills had followed normal international practice, despite Australian authorities first becoming aware of them after they began, from a passing Virgin pilot.

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Jeffrey Epstein: more files released related to late sex offender and financier

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Attorney general had indicated justice department would release files related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019

The US justice department has released additional files related to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The justice department gave a statement on Thursday evening, saying the release largely contained documents that had been “previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity by the US government”.

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HS2 ‘a casebook example of how not to run a major project’, MPs say

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Scathing committee report lambasts DfT and HS2 for failing to work together effectively

HS2 has become “a casebook example of how not to run a major project”, according to the latest scathing report on the high-speed rail line from MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC).

The PAC lambasted the Department for Transport (DfT) and HS2 Ltd for failing to work together effectively, and told them not to waste the opportunity to get a grip on costs during the project’s latest “reset”.

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Mexico releases 29 high-level organized crime operatives into US custody

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Prisoners, including Rafael Caro Quintero, extradited as Mexico faces pressure to show it’s tackling fentanyl trafficking

Mexico has extradited 29 high-level organised crime operatives to the US, as it faces intense pressure from the Trump administration to show that it is tackling fentanyl trafficking.

Among the prisoners sent to the US was Rafael Caro Quintero, the drug lord who was convicted of the murder of an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1985.

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Trump says Putin would keep his word on a Ukraine peace deal

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President claims presence of US workers in Ukraine would deter Russian aggression after talks with Keir Starmer

Donald Trump has insisted that Vladimir Putin would “keep his word” on a peace deal for Ukraine, arguing that US workers extracting critical minerals in the country would act as a security backstop to deter Russia from invading again.

During highly anticipated talks at the White House with the prime minister, Keir Starmer, the US president said that Putin could be trusted not to breach any agreement, which could aim to return as much of the land as possible to Ukraine that was seized by Russia during the brutal three-year conflict.

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Russian chess grandmaster Boris Spassky dies aged 88

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World champion will be remembered for the ‘match of the century’ against American Bobby Fischer in 1972

Soviet chess grandmaster Boris Spassky, who was famously defeated at the height of the cold war, has died at 88, the Russian Chess Federation has announced.

“The tenth world champion Boris Spassky has died at 88,” the federation said in a statement on its website on Thursday, calling it a “great loss for the country”. The statement did not say when he died or from what cause.

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Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he was fired from coaching job after Maga protest

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  • 43-year-old was arrested at city council meeting
  • Former player was coaching local high school

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he has been fired from his job as a high school football coach after his protest at a city council meeting in California.

Kluwe was arrested at the Huntington Beach city council meeting last week, at which he spoke out against the decision to erect a plaque at a local library. The plaque features the words “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing and Adventurous” and the city commission confirmed it was a reference to Maga. The former Minnesota Vikings player then made critical comments about the Trump administration before saying he would “engage in the time-honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience” and walked on to the meeting’s stage. He was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting an assembly.

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The São Paulo connection: a Brazilian gang is spreading its cocaine business into Australia

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The PCC – First Capital Command – formed in a Sāo Paulo prison but is now spreading its tentacles around the world

In September 2020, the Australian Border Force intercepted 552kg of cocaine concealed in 2,000 boxes of frozen banana pulp that had arrived at the port of Sydney on a ship from Brazil.

Two years later, a diver was found floating dead next to 52kg of cocaine near the port of Newcastle, in New South Wales, Australia. Police later discovered that he was a Brazilian national who had been attempting to retrieve drugs from a cargo ship’s hull.

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Colorado woman charged with vandalizing Tesla dealership

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Lucy Grace Nelson is accused of throwing molotov cocktails and spray-painting ‘Nazi cars’ on the EV maker’s building

Federal prosecutors have charged a woman in a string of vandalism incidents against a Colorado Tesla dealership, including throwing molotov cocktails at vehicles and spray-painting “Nazi cars” on the building along with a message that appeared directed at company co-founder Elon Musk.

The case comes amid rising concerns voiced by Democrats and some Republicans about Musk’s influence over the administration of Donald Trump and follows recent protests at Tesla showrooms elsewhere in the US.

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Pride Toronto loses corporate funding as Trump’s DEI purge has chilling effect

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Canadian event loses three sponsors who also do business in the US to avoid being seen as supporting LGBTQ+ rights

Pride Toronto, one of the largest celebrations of LGTBQ+ people in North America, is reeling from the loss of three major sponsors who have pulled funding after Donald Trump’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the US.

Kojo Modeste, the executive director of the Canadian event said that the sponsors who also do business in the US are seeking to avoidbeing seen as supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

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Alarms raised over legitimacy of Fyre festival 2: ‘An event that does not exist’

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Tourism and local officials in Mexico deny any knowledge of proposed follow-up to disastrous 2017 event

When tickets to the second Fyre festival went on sale this week, there was just one concrete detail: it would take place on Isla Mujeres, a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico.

But the festival seems to be repeating its own history as an improvised disaster after the local government in Isla Mujeres denied knowing anything about it.

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Coroner warns about NHS physician associates after misdiagnosis and death of woman

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Pamela Marking, suffering severe stomach issues, diagnosed in hospital with nosebleed and sent home by PA

A coroner has issued a warning about the role of physician associates in NHS hospitals after a woman with severe abdominal problems was wrongly diagnosed as having a nosebleed and died four days later.

The family of Pamela Marking, 77, were under the mistaken impression she had been seen by a doctor when she was examined in an emergency department, rather than a physician associate (PA) with far less training.

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Donald Trump suggests he will back UK in Chagos Islands deal

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‘I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country,’ president says of plan to hand sovereignty to Mauritius

Donald Trump has strongly hinted that he will back a deal in which the UK hands sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, including the Diego Garcia military base, which is jointly used by the US.

“I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country,” the US president told reporters during an impromptu press conference in the Oval Office with Keir Starmer, who is visiting Washington. He added: “I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well.”

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