Australia news live: Hastie warns ADF is ‘going to get weaker’ as China tests US allies with ‘gunboat diplomacy’

Shadow defence minister told ABC RN China is testing US allies as Trump ‘resets relationships in Europe’. Follow today’s news live

ABC pays tribute to Antony Green as he announces upcoming election will be his last on-air

Continuing from our last post: the ABC’s director of news, Justin Stevens, has paid tribute to Antony Green as he announces the upcoming election would be his last on-air with the national broadcaster.

For more than three decades he has performed one of the ABC’s most important roles with precision, impartiality, dedication and unprecedented expertise.

He has the ABC’s immense gratitude and respect. I’m sure our audience joins me in thanking him and wishing him well as he prepares for his final federal election broadcast.

It’s time to retire. I turn 65 this coming weekend. I work on a three-year election cycle with federal elections, I won’t be presenting elections in three years’ time when I’m 68, so this will be my last on-camera election for the ABC.

I’ll stay on for a couple of years, handing over work and doing other things, but essentially I’m deciding to retire and work less.

There are 80 or 90 of them, a book on every election since 1990, state and federal … I [also] redesigned computer system. When I first started this, you had to be in the tally room to get the numbers. It was the only way to get data from the Electoral Commission to the ABC computer, so you had to be there. It’s a completely different world now.

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Chile hit by nationwide blackout, forcing Santiago metro evacuations

Chile’s biggest blackout in 15 years hits from Arica to Los Lagos, testing one of South America’s top power grids

A sweeping blackout has hit Chile, stranding commuters, knocking out traffic lights, paralyzing countless businesses and leaving most of the South American country without electricity.

The National Electrical Coordinator, Chile’s grid operator, said a disruption had occurred in a high-voltage transmission line that carries power from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to the capital of Santiago in the country’s central valley.

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Donald Trump orders new tariff investigation into US copper imports

President opens new front in assault on global trade norms as advisers claim China moving to dominate copper market

Donald Trump on Tuesday opened yet another front in his assault on global trade norms, ordering a new investigation into possible tariffs on copper imports to rebuild US production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, semiconductors and a wide range of consumer goods.

Trump, looking to thwart what his advisers see as a move by China to dominate the global copper market, signed an order directing commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to start a new national security investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the same law that Trump used in his first term to impose 25% global tariffs on steel and aluminum.

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Sydney nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in viral video charged

Strike Force Pearl investigators arrested and charged Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, but no charges have been laid against her former colleague Ahmed Rashid Nadir

A public hospital nurse who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in a viral video posted by an Israeli influencer has been charged with three offences.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, was charged with three offences including threatening violence, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

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US judge blocks Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement program

US district judge in Seattle says Trump’s executive order exceeded his powers by shutting down program

A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to suspend the US’s refugee admission system after ruling that the move exceeded his powers.

The ruling, from US district judge Jamal Whitehead, stated that Trump’s executive order affecting refugee admissions, issued on the day of his inauguration, amounted to an illegal usurpation of the powers of Congress.

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Rachel Maddow says MSNBC laying off ‘non-white’ hosts and staff is ‘indefensible’

Majority of producers on Maddow and Joy Reid’s shows let go with option to re-apply amid network shake-up

MSNBC has told the majority of the employees who produce Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid’s primetime evening news shows they are being let go as part of the network’s programming overhaul with the option to apply for new roles, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.

Maddow, the biggest star and highest-rated anchor at MSNBC, will get to keep her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, and several other senior producers, the people said.

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ABC election guru Antony Green says it’s ‘time to retire’ as he prepares to leave on-air role

Analyst, who is about to turn 65, said the upcoming federal election would be the last he covers on air

The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, has just announced that the upcoming federal election will be his last on-air with the ABC.

Green said on Wednesday morning it was “time to retire”.

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Newsom threatens to pull funds unless California cities crack down on homelessness

‘We’re not going to fund failure,’ says governor, who warned local authorities they could lose out on millions of dollars

California’s governor warned cities and counties that they could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if they do not make progress in clearing out encampments and tackling homelessness.

Gavin Newsom’s comments on Monday, while announcing $920m in funding to address the crisis, come as he escalates efforts to push local governments to take greater action. Last summer, Newsom told counties he could withhold state support if they failed to do more homeless encampment sweeps.

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Wes Streeting to axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after ousting of chief executive

NHS staff fear power grab by health department as health secretary looks to shrink body due to ‘duplication’ of roles

Wes Streeting will axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after his ousting of its chair and chief executive in what health service staff fear is a power grab.

The health secretary’s plan follows Amanda Pritchard’s shock announcement on Monday that she was stepping down as the organisation’s chief executive next month.

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French fugitive whose escape left two officers dead extradited from Romania

Mohamed Amra’s arrest ends nine-month manhunt when armed assailants ambushed prison convoy in Normandy

A notorious French fugitive who staged a deadly escape that killed two guards last year has been extradited from Romania to France, days after his arrest in Bucharest ended a nine-month international manhunt.

Mohamed Amra, nicknamed “The Fly”, was arrested near a shopping centre in Bucharest on Saturday after being identified by Romanian police, despite having dyed his hair red, possibly to evade detection. The Bucharest court of appeal approved his extradition request on Sunday.

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Tim Westwood inquiry report: what new allegations against him have emerged?

The document contains a series of previously unpublished claims, including 22 from members of the public

The independent inquiry into what the BBC knew about the former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood’s conduct has been published almost three years after a joint investigation by the Guardian and BBC News.

The investigation told the stories of a number of women who accused the 67-year-old of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour.

“Hounded” a 17-year-old Black woman with phone calls and texts.

Invited a girl who was 15 or 16 back to his home following an under-16 night, after she had added him on Blackberry to get information about the event.

Contacted a woman who had shared her business card, and appeared agitated when she did not want to meet late at night.

“Hurled” a can of drink at a woman who was serving in a club.

A former BBC staff member told the corporation their son had witnessed Westwood propositioning a 15-year-old girl in a night club in around 2007. The BBC reported the complaint to the Metropolitan police, who took no action.

A BBC employee said in 2022 that a guest on Radio 1 had described potential sexual assault by Westwood between 2004 and 2007. They said they had reported it to a more senior employee, but White found no evidence the complaint had been documented. Westwood’s lawyers said he was never spoken to about the incident.

A student told the review about Westwood referring to her breasts during a 1Xtra DriveTime show in 2010, calling her “cuddly” and miming grabbing her breasts, which his lawyers say he strongly denies.

A Sun journalist contacted Radio 1 in November 2012 saying they had been given tipoffs about Westwood and “inappropriate relations with young girls”. A senior figure flagged allegations made about Westwood on Twitter to HR and the corporate investigations team, which decided that no action would be taken without further evidence.

White concluded that senior BBC staff did not think Westwood had had sexual contact with 15-year-old girls, but that the issue “ought to have been formally raised with him” and the online allegations should have been examined further.

“Many” BBC employees “perceived there to be a close relationship between the controllers and Tim Westwood”.

Witnesses felt they were unable to complain because of the “feeling that … senior management were likely to side with presenters”.

Westwood made repeated comments about guests and staff members’ bodies, particularly about women’s breasts.

Until Westwood was removed from the 1Xtra DriveTime show in 2012, “the approach appears to have been to raise issues informally … and, when the situation did not improve, to move BBC staff working on the 1Xtra DriveTime show to other programmes”.

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Starmer can only hope slashing aid to boost defence wins Trump’s favour

PM’s Washington trip clear impetus for abrupt news of budget switch to meet defence commitment by 2027

Before Keir Starmer’s meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday, the prime minister thought it necessary to offer the president a gift. Britain’s defence spending will increase by 0.17 percentage points to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, he told MPs in a hastily arranged Commons statement. The money, he added, would be taken directly from the overseas aid budget, whose level will be cut by nearly half to 0.3%.

The last measure is a remarkable turn for a Labour government. Uncomfortably, it comes at a time when Donald Trump wants to shut down perhaps the entire $40bn US aid budget – and at a stroke eliminates a signature commitment from the Blair-Brown years. It was back in 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister, that Labour first committed to increasing aid spending to 0.7% of GDP.

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Farage’s trip to meet Musk was part-funded by former fraudster George Cottrell

Cottrell, who served eight months for fraud, paid £15,000 for Reform party leader’s flight to US in December

Nigel Farage’s trip to Florida where he met Elon Musk was part-funded by his friend and former fraudster George Cottrell, who paid for his £15,000 flight.

The Reform leader accepted the flight for his visit in December last year, when he was pictured smiling with Musk and the Reform party treasurer, Nick Candy.

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Starmer slashes aid to fund major increase in defence spending

Announcement prompts concerns that PM is pandering to US president and warnings over consequences of aid cuts

Keir Starmer has announced that Britain will “fight for peace in Europe” with a generational increase in defence spending paid for by slashing the foreign aid budget.

The move, just two days before the prime minister is due to meet Donald Trump, raised immediate concerns that he was pandering to the US president, and fury from aid groups that say it could cost lives in countries that rely on UK support.

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BBC admits it ‘fell short and failed people’ over Tim Westwood

Corporation apologises as inquiry finds it missed opportunities that could have led to action over former Radio 1 DJ’s behaviour

The BBC has admitted it “fell short and failed people” – including its own staff – and apologised after finding evidence of “bullying and misogynistic” behaviour by its former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood.

A £3.3m external inquiry published on Tuesday found the broadcaster “missed opportunities” during the DJ’s two decades at the organisation that could have led to action. The inquiry was triggered by a 2022 Guardian and BBC News joint investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour by the DJ.

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