POLITICS & POLICY

When Russians started being arrested for opposing the Ukraine offensive, Maria felt the same kind of fear she guessed her ancestors, victims of repression under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, must have lived through.

Tetyana Bugay burst into tears as she called her sister to announce she had finally returned to Ukraine after spending over two and a half years in Russian captivity.

With more than 20% of the global hydrogen projects announced in Australia, and AU$200 billion worth projects in the pipeline, the country is expected to be a global leader in the green hydrogen sector.

Under the new draft, the role of Australian Financial Complaints Authority has been expanded, giving access to victims to seek compensation from the digital platform, telco, or the bank.

Mammals that can breathe through their backsides, homing pigeons that can guide missiles and sober worms that outpace drunk ones: these are some of the strange scientific discoveries that won this year's Ig Nobels, the quirky alternative to the Nobel prizes.

Following a significant deal with the opposition, the Labor government's reform package was expected to help the elderly remain in their homes for a longer period, besides enhancing the quality of aged care facilities.

The bill also grants additional power to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with information-gathering, record-keeping, code registration and setting standards.

Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled his country with an iron fist and then spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, died on Wednesday at age 86 in the capital Lima.

It has been around six weeks since Vladimir Kara-Murza swapped his prison long-johns and rubber flip flops for sharp suits, but the major opponent of the Kremlin says he is still adjusting to reality.

Israel bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Wednesday, which rescuers said killed 18 people, including UN staffers, while the Israeli army said it hit a Hamas control centre.

Peru's Alberto Fujimori, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, was a one-time university dean who rose to wage a bloody campaign against insurgents as president in the 1990s -- but ended up jailed for atrocities.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters of Catalan independence rallied in Barcelona on the Spanish region's commemorative day, with separatists deeply divided and out of office in Catalonia for the first time in over a decade.

Cities and villages across France are scrambling to rid themselves of plaques while schools are moving to change their names following a raft of posthumous sexual abuse accusations against a charity icon who was showered with accolades in his lifetime.

The president of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accused Italy's hard-right government Wednesday of seeking to criminalise humanitarian aid to drowning migrants, as a court suspended authorities' blockage of its ship.

While Europeans had the option to refuse to give consent to their data being used under privacy laws, Meta had not extended the option to Australians.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Wednesday a deal with Australia on a vast fossil fuel project seen as crucial to the tiny nation's economic future will be struck by November.

Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, arrived in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday as he moves to deepen already close ties on his first foreign visit since taking office.

The night before June 6, 1944, fleets of warships moved in darkness towards the beaches of Normandy, France, for a massive strike, with Chinese naval officer Lam Ping-yu on one of the vessels.

The backbone of the economy, Sri Lanka's tea pickers are determined to use their powerful vote to choose a president this month who will change grim working conditions for good.

A wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia overnight killed a woman near Moscow, Russian officials said on Tuesday, the first time someone has been killed in a Ukrainian attack near the capital since Russia's military offensive began in 2022.

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and "onto the footy fields".

Russian and Chinese warships began joint drills in the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, part of a major naval exercise that will see Moscow sail through waters spanning the Northern Hemisphere and Pacific.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike Tuesday on a humanitarian zone in the Palestinian territory killed 40 people, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.

Pope Francis celebrated a mass for hundreds of thousands of faithful in East Timor on Tuesday, rallying nearly half the population of the world's most Catholic country outside the Vatican in stifling tropical heat.

After South Korean authorities uncovered a sprawling network of AI deepfake porn Telegram chatrooms targeting schools and universities, teenage activist Bang Seo-yoon began collecting testimony of abuse from victims.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado vowed Monday to remain in Venezuela, a day after her colleague and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia took up asylum in Spain claiming post-election repression.

Catherine, Princess of Wales announced Monday that she was cancer-free but on a long road to "full recovery", in a highly emotional video message following a shock cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

A leading opponent of Vladimir Putin, freed in a prisoner swap last month, on Monday urged the West against allowing the Russian leader any "face-saving" way out of the war against Ukraine, saying the end of his quarter-century of rule was the only solution for peace.

The University of Sydney and University of Melbourne will have to slash their intake by 7%, limiting the students to 11,900 and 9,300, respectively. Overseas students account for more than 40% in both the universities.