Category: Australasia

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon apparently isn’t feeling the same affordability struggles as many average Americans, as he approved spending more than $93 billion in September, including on luxury food items and iPads.
A new analysis published by government watchdog Open the Books found that in September — the end of the 2025 fiscal year — Hegseth reportedly burned through cash, including spending $9 million on crab and lobster dinners.
According to Military.com, an increase in military officials eating pricey meals has traditionally been viewed as a sign that something may be brewing — such as President Donald Trump’s war in Iran — though it appears Hegseth has been dining well at the Pentagon since at least last spring.
The spending review found that in the month of September alone, the Defense Department spent $6.9 million in total on lobster tail and $2 million on Alaskan king crab, according to the government watchdog. In 2025, the department also spent more than $7.4..

AI is being increasingly used by the US military – and Project Maven is at its heart.
An investigation by The Independent and conflict monitoring group Airwars has found that Abdul-Rahman al-Rawi, a 20-year-old student, is the first civilian killed in a series of airstrikes that were acknowledged to have been carried out with the assistance of AI.
Weeks after the strikes in Iraq in early February 2024, a senior US official boasted about the use of AI to help identify the targets in these strikes – but US Central Command later said it “did not know” whether AI had been involved.
AI in warfare has become an increasingly pressing issue.
Deadly US attacks across Iran, which have killed hundreds in the past week, are reported to have used Palantir’s Maven Smart System (MSS) to identify targets, a broader AI-enabled warfighting decision support system into which Project Maven is typically integrated.
open image in galleryUS military officials last week said American forces are likely respon..

Abdul-Rahman al-Rawi, a student working towards his diploma in construction, stepped out of his home in a quiet street in al-Qaim, north east Iraq, having heard a volley of noise overhead.
Within seconds, the 20-year-old was dead, killed instantly by the impact of a US missile destroying the stationary car he was standing next to in the early hours of that February morning in 2024.
His brother Anmar describes in grisly detail how his brother died in the attack, telling a joint investigation by conflict monitoring group Airwars and The Independent: “It took us two days to gather all of my brother’s remains.”
Abdul-Rahman was caught up in one of 85 co-ordinated attacks carried out by the US that night against Iraqi-government aligned forces and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.
open image in gallery20-year-old Abdul-Rahman was killed in February 2024 by a US airstrike on Al-Qaim, Iraq (Anmar al-Rawi)The operation was deemed a success, with a senior American official subsequently..

Reports are emerging of black rain falling over parts of Iran in the hours after US-Israeli airstrikes on oil depots on the weekend, with some outlets describing it as “acid rain”.
Iranian residents have reported headaches, difficulty breathing, and oil-contaminated rain settling on buildings and cars. Iran’s Red Crescent Society warned rainfall following the strikes could be “highly dangerous and acidic.”
As an atmospheric chemist and chemical engineer who researches air pollution, these reports are very worrying, and indicate much more than just acid rain.
This rain would include acids, but also likely a host of other pollutants that are harmful to humans and the environment in the short and long term. It may even be worse than the term “acid rain” conveys.
More broadly, the thick clouds of toxic smoke over densely populated areas in Iran are also a major problem for anyone breathing this air right now.
What could this ‘acid rain’ be?One of the primary ways air pollutants are removed..

Mojtaba Khamenei named supreme leader to succeed father killed in strikes as oil prices surgeIsrael is using white phosphorous over civilian homes in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch has warned.
The organisation said it verified and geolocated seven images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over a residential part of the southern Lebanese village of Yohmorand civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in the area.
The white-hot chemical substance can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone. Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Meanwh..

A woman from Derby is trekking 500 miles to the North Pole in the hope of inspiring women and girls across the globe.
With International Women’s Day on Saturday, Preet Chandi MBE, 37, known as 'Polar Preet’, is due to set out for her 60-day hike in the next few days, and aims to become the first woman to reach the North Pole solo and unsupported.
The four-time Guinness World Record-holding British-Indian explorer has already become the first woman of colour to reach the South Pole solo and unsupported when she walked 700 miles there in 2021.
open image in galleryPreet Chandi MBE, known globally as 'Polar Preet’, she aims to become the first woman ever to reach the North Pole solo and unsupported (Aviaaja Schluter)Now, she has set her sights even higher, with conditions during her North Pole journey expected to be even more challenging. Setting out from Canada, she is hauling 130kg of her own gear on a sledge across one of the most hostile environments on Earth, with no outsid..

An explosion on Sunday outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway, may be linked to the ongoing Middle East security situation, police have said said.
As of Sunday afternoon, no suspects had been identified, Norwegian police added.
“It's natural to see this in the context of the current security situation and that this could be an attack deliberately targeting the U.S. embassy,” police spokesperson Frode Larsen told a news conference.
A “loud” explosion occurred at the entrance to the U.S. embassy in the city in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The incident reportedly did not cause any deaths and resulted in minor damage at the scene.
“A loud bang/explosion was reported at the scene,” Oslo police told CBS News in a statement.
“Around 1 a.m. we received several reports of explosions. We arrived after a short time and determined that there had been an explosion that had hit the American embassy, ​” police incident commander Michael Delmer told public broadcaster NRK, in comments vi..

Hungarian authorities have temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armoured vehicles carrying tens of millions of euros in cash, amid suspicions of money laundering.
The incident, which occurred across Hungary, saw the individuals held on Thursday before their release on Friday.
Despite the Ukrainians being freed, Hungarian officials retained the substantial sum of money. This move has prompted a rebuke from Kyiv, with Ukraine accusing Hungary's Russia-friendly government of illegally confiscating the funds.
“We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Friday.
open image in galleryUkraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (Reuters)The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and Ukraine as part of regular services between state banks, Sybiha said.
In a post on Facebook, Osch..

Leavitt outlines what Trump's 'unconditional surrender' of Iran meansIran's president described the United States’s demand for an unconditional surrender as a “dream that they should take to their grave” as he apologised for attacks on regional countries, insisting that Tehran would halt them.
Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a pre-recorded address aired by Iranian state television on Saturday morning.
It came after Tehran’s Mehrabad airport was hit by explosions, with video footage showing a burning plane and plumes of smoke rising into the sky.
The Mehrabad airport is Iran's busiest commercial airport and main domestic hub. It also serves the Iranian air force.
The attack followed Donald Trump – who was reported to express serious interest in deploying a limited US force on the ground – saying the US military was doing “phenomenally” against Iran as he demanded Tehran's “unconditional surrender”.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, war..

Canadian backpacker Piper James, 19, died “as a result of drowning” following a dingo attack in Australia, according to the coroner’s findings.
Her body was found in January on a beach on K’gari, a World Heritage sand island off Queensland, close to the Maheno shipwreck. Police said her body was surrounded by a pack of dingoes, prompting an investigation into the circumstances of her death.
“Piper died as a result of drowning in the setting of multiple injuries, due to, or as a consequence of a dingo attack,” a spokesperson for the Queensland coroner’s court said.
“The investigation into Piper’s death is ongoing, and no further information can be provided at this time.”
Earlier, Queensland authorities had euthanised eight of the ten dingoes that had surrounded James’s body on K’gari – formerly known as Fraser Island – following her death. Officials had said the animals were part of a pack believed to have surrounded her body and had shown aggressive behaviour.
The move angered traditi..