POLITICS & POLICY

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday said it would be "suicidal" for Europe to offer the Kremlin concessions to halt its invasion of Ukraine, after Moscow demanded the West enter direct talks on ending the war.

European leaders gathered in Budapest Thursday in search of a joint response to the threats of a new Donald Trump presidency -- though the seat of powerhouse Germany was left empty by a deepening political crisis.

Unusual cross-party support is swelling in France behind a draft law meant to halt a looming "mexicanisation" of the country by a burgeoning drug trade, defying an otherwise riven political landscape.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday Beijing and Washington must find a way to "get along" in a message to US president-elect Donald Trump, state media reported.

Australia's prime minister on Thursday vowed to ban children under 16 from social media, saying the pervasive influence of platforms like Facebook and TikTok was "doing real harm to our kids".

Ireland meet New Zealand on Friday at Lansdowne Road in a rematch of last year's epic Rugby World Cup quarter-final which dashed Irish dreams of lifting the trophy.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been dubbed the "Scholzomat" for a dry personal style bordering on the robotic, but also hailed as a safe pair of hands leading a country that values stability.

Donald Trump's victory in US presidential elections has sparked anxiety on the streets of Kyiv at a decisive moment of the war as Ukrainian defences buckle under mounting Russian pressure.

Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 US presidential election is likely to usher in a raft of economic changes at home and abroad, touching everything from foreign trade to the independence of the US central bank.

US allies at NATO scrambled Wednesday to put a brave face on the return of Donald Trump to the White House amid fears the unpredictable Republican could upend European security and pull the plug on Ukraine support.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has revealed plans to introduce new legislation to allow for adjusted electronic monitoring and curfews. Burke said in a statement that "regulations are now being finalized that will allow for an adjusted process for electronic monitoring devices and curfews to be used."

Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was beaten, drugged and repeatedly gang-raped -- just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

The first polls closed Tuesday in the volatile White House race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as a divided nation anxiously awaited the result of one of the tightest elections in US history.

The wives and girlfriends of dozens of men on trial in France accused of raping another woman while she was drugged by her husband have reacted with anger and disbelief, although some say they will stand by the accused.

The plan includes extending the Continuation Bonus for permanent members of the Australian Defense Force (ADF) and increasing the ADF's Operational Reserves by an additional 1,000 personnel to strengthen and sustain a highly skilled workforce.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong emphasized that the federal government would continue to maintain a cooperative relationship with the U.S., regardless of which candidate won.

Sculptor Aung Naing Lin has spent decades carving Buddha statues to help guide Myanmar's faithful -- but getting the marble he needs from rebel-held quarries in the midst of civil war is now a perilous task.

When political outsider Donald Trump defied polls and expectations to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, he described the victory as "beautiful."

As the new changes take effect on June 1, 2025, an average graduate with a loan of AU$27,600 will have AU$5,520 removed from their debt.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, "We're busy prioritising all of our purchases when it comes to defence assets, we've got a considerable increase in our defence budget and we'll make sure all of the decisions that we make are in our national interest."

Israel formally notified the United Nations of its decision to sever ties with the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, it said Monday, after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation vital to the occupied territories.

Quincy Jones, who has died at the age of 91, was a jazzman, composer and tastemaker whose studio chops and arranging prowess connected the dots between the 20th century's constellation of stars.

Ukrainian soldier Anton Sushko, severely wounded, thought he was finally safe when he spotted a rescue team after crawling for hours through the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike killed three people near the southern city of Sidon on Sunday as more bombs fell in the country's east after Israel warned it would again hit Hezbollah targets there.

Moldovans went to the polls on Sunday in a tense presidential election runoff that could play a key role in the country's European future amid fears of Russian interference.

The world's biggest nature conservation conference closed in Colombia on Saturday with no agreement on a roadmap to ramp up funding for species protection.

Israel on Saturday again carried out deadly air strikes on north Gaza, where the UN calls conditions "apocalyptic", as Lebanon's Hezbollah intensified rocket fire near Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv, on Israel's second front.

US job growth slowed drastically in October, hit temporarily by hurricanes and labor strikes, in a final major economic snapshot at the end of a razor-edge presidential election campaign where cost-of-living worries dominated voter concerns.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris hold dueling campaign rallies Friday in Wisconsin's largest city Milwaukee, as both candidates make frantic last-ditch appeals to wavering voters with Election Day just around the corner.