Category: Australasia

Federal immigration officers have shot and killed another American citizen in Minneapolis, just 17 days after they fatally shot Renee Good.
The victim of the shooting was identified as Alex Pretti, 37. He was near 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, filming DHS agents during an operation.
Open-sourced video capturing the incident shows Pretti moving to assist a pair of individuals on the sidewalk near the agents, who then began pepper-spraying the group.
The victim is tackled by a group of at least five agents and dragged to the ground. The footage shows the Border Patrol agents struggling with Pretti on the ground and striking him when a gunshot is heard. A moment later, an agent fires multiple shots while Pretti is down on the pavement.
Ten shots were fired within five seconds.
Immediately after the shooting, the agents back off from Pretti's body, and one officer — who appears to be holding a gun — runs away from the scene and hides behind a..

The National Transportation Safety Board is set to scrutinise the deadliest US air crash since 2001 this Tuesday, where 67 people died in a collision between an airliner and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., on January 29. Investigators are expected to detail multiple contributing factors rather than a single cause.
The NTSB hearing will explore these numerous factors, with the board aiming to propose crucial changes to avert similar incidents. The Federal Aviation Administration has already cemented temporary restrictions, ensuring aircraft and helicopters will no longer share the same airspace around Reagan National Airport.
However, families of the victims are urging that these recommendations are not overlooked, a fate many past NTSB suggestions have met. Tim Lilley, whose son Sam was the first officer on the American Airlines plane, expressed his hope: “I hope officials in Congress and the administration will make changes now instead of waiting until for another disaster.”..

CloseKyiv and Kharkiv bombarded in '370 drone attack' hours after Ukraine-Russia peace talks openVladimir Putin ordered a “brutal” attack on Kyiv that has left millions without power as trilateral peace talks were underway in Abu Dhabi, according to Ukrainian officials.
The two-day negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by the US, marked the first such talks since the war erupted in February 2022, but they drew to a close on Saturday with no significant breakthroughs made. The Donbas region, including the largely Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, remain a sticking point for both countries.
The second day of talks came as dozens of people were injured in Kyiv and Kharkiv, with at least one person dead in the capital, after Russia launched a major missile and drone attack, according to Ukrainian officials.
“Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led p..

CloseMoment federal agents shoot man in MinneapolisThe man shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis Saturday has been named as Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse.
Federal officials accused Pretti of attempting to assassinate officers with a pistol.
Publicly available video doesn’t show Pretti pointing or drawing any weapon and threatening officers.
Another video shows him attempting to stand between federal agents and a person one of them has just pushed to the ground.
A group of about six officers then stand over Pretti and wrestle him to the ground, scattering after shots ring out. One angle of the encounter seems to show an officer pulling a pistol resembling the one found on Pretti just before the shooting begins.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was a “lawful gun owner” with a permit.
Federal officials didn’t provide any footage or a detailed timeline of the encounter, merely pointing to the gun as evidence Pretti was attempting an attack.
State offic..

Under the Trump administration, immigration and border agencies have received an unprecedented windfall of nearly $170 billion in new funding, but their operations have also come at a major cost to the taxpayer, according to newly released data.
The cost of a single enforced deportation is $18,245, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday. Last year, the figure was just over $17,000.
The agency announced the statistics while touting its CBP Home process, which offers a $2,600 stipend to migrants willing to self-deport, arguing the program saves taxpayers thousands of dollars.
During the president’s first year in office, there were more than 675,000 deportations, and an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations.
The Trump administration’s military-style deportation crackdowns have also caused major expenditures and economic disruptions in cities across the country, most recently Minneapolis.
open image in galleryIt costs $18,245 to carry out a single deportation, accor..

The formidable reality confronting any US, NATO, or European plans for Greenland is its ice. The relentless frozen expanse obstructs harbours, encases valuable minerals, and transforms coastlines into treacherous fields of white and blue shards, posing a year-round threat to shipping.
Navigating this challenging environment necessitates a specific solution: icebreakers. These colossal vessels, equipped with powerful engines, reinforced hulls, and heavy bows, are engineered to crush and cleave through thick ice.
However, the United States currently possesses only three such ships, with one reportedly in such disrepair as to be almost unusable. While agreements are in place to acquire an additional eleven, procurement faces significant geopolitical hurdles, as potential sources include either adversaries or recently alienated allies.
Despite toning down his rhetoric, U.S. President Donald Trump seems set on the U.S. owning Greenland for security and economic reasons: to keep what he call..

US president Donald Trump has provoked anger among British politicians and veteran fighters by claiming Nato soldiers avoided the front lines in the war in Afghanistan.
Around 1,186 non-American Nato troops died in the conflict that began in 2001, according to Help for Heroes. More than 2,300 members of the US armed forced were killed.
But Mr Trump ramped up tensions with Nato on Thursday, saying he was not sure the alliance would “be there if we ever needed them”.
He told Fox News: “They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
Lord Sedwill, a former British ambassador to Afghanistan, told Times Radio that Mr Trump’s claim was offensive and simply wrong, and that Afghanistan veterans and the families of those who died would be right to feel deeply offended.
open image in galleryMr Trump saw US Afghanistan veterans’ bodies repatriated (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)He said: “The Ame..

CloseTrump drops Europe tariffs threat over Greenland after Nato talks at DavosA Danish MP has said that the deal U.S president Donald Trump claims to have struck over Greenland is “definitely not a deal” and that his so-called negotiations with Nato were “not real”.
Trump yesterday backed down from his threat to impose tariffs on European nations after reaching the “framework of a future deal” over Greenland, hours after giving a fiery speech in Davos.
He abandoned plans to impose tariffs on allies who had objected to his efforts to acquire the Danish-controlled territory after what he described as a “very productive” meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
Sascha Faxe told Sky News that “there can’t be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations, first of all”.
“So we have a Greenlandic MP in Denmark – and she’s very clear that this is not a prerogative of Rutte and Nato; they can’t trade the underground in Greenland, or Greenlandic security without Greenlande..

Rescuers in New Zealand were searching for several people, including at least one child, after a landslide tore through a popular holiday campsite as days of record-breaking rain and flooding continued to batter the country.
The landslide struck a campground at the base of Mount Maunganui on Thursday morning, overturning campervans, crushing tents, and hitting a toilet and shower block, according to emergency officials.
Rescue teams said they initially heard voices calling for help from beneath the rubble but had detected no further signs of life by late afternoon, as concerns grew about the stability of the hillside.
The landslide came after days of torrential rain linked to a tropical weather system, which has dumped extraordinary volumes of rain across large parts of the North Island.
New Zealand’s emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said parts of the east coast resembled “a war zone”, with helicopters deployed to rescue families trapped on rooftops and local states of em..

A 12-year-old mauled by a shark in Australia’s Sydney Harbour has been identified as Nico Antic, with a family friend saying the boy had suffered “devastating injuries”.
Antic was attacked on Sunday afternoon while swimming with friends near Shark Beach in Vaucluse, an affluent harbourside suburb in Sydney’s east.
The incident happened shortly after 4.20pm as the boys were jumping from rocks along the Hermitage Foreshore Walk, a popular coastal path.
Police believe a bull shark – a species known to inhabit murky, brackish waters – was responsible. The boy was bitten on both legs.
Antic was taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, where he remains in a critical condition.
On Wednesday morning, the hospital said it could not provide an update on his condition, the Guardian reported.
A GoFundMe appeal launched by Victor Piñeiro, who described himself as a close friend of the family, said the boy had suffered “devastating injuries”.
“Despite all efforts, this heartbreaking event ..