Category: Australasia

Representative Tony Gonzales has dropped his bid for re-election after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
The Texas Republican wrote in a statement released late Thursday night, “After deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district.”
For months, Gonzales has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old wife and mother who worked in his Uvalde office.
After initially denying the allegations, Gonzales admitted he “made a mistake,” calling his infidelity with a subordinate “a lapse in judgment” in an interview with conservative talk show host Joe Pagliarulo, released Wednesday.
open image in galleryRepresentative Tony Gonzales has dropped his bid for re-election after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide (Alex Wong/Getty ..

The U.S. military under President Donald Trump is now free to fight wars without its hands tied behind its back, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has claimed.
Miller celebrated the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran as “politically incorrect” and lashed out at what he called the “woke Pentagon” under previous administrations.
“What you're seeing right now … is a military under President Trump's leadership that is not fighting politically correct. That isn't fighting with its hands tied behind its back,” Miller said.
”One of the reasons why people lost faith in the military and the capacity to use that military to defend us is because we had a woke Pentagon. Because we had a military who at the very highest level – not the war-fighters – was forced to fight a less than full fight.”
open image in galleryWhite House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has lashed out at the ‘woke Pentagon’ (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)The reported death toll from the US-Israeli s..

Iran has denied attacking Turkey after a ballistic missile entered the Nato country’s airspace, threatening to further spread the conflict beyond the Middle East.
Nato air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile that was fired towards the country on Wednesday, marking the first time the alliance member bordering Asia has been drawn into the conflict and raising the possibility of a major expansion of the war.
The Iranian Armed Forces General Staff denied firing missiles at Turkey on Thursday, saying the Islamic Republic respected the sovereignty of Turkey, according to a statement carried by Iranian media.
As the Iran war enters its sixth day, countries across the Gulf have been attacked as Tehran retaliates against US and Israeli airstrikes which began on Saturday.
open image in gallerySmoke rises from Tehran after a strike (AFP/Getty)US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan that attacks on Turkey's territory are unacceptable.
He the..

A fire broke out near the US consulate in Dubai following a drone strike on Tuesday night (3 March).

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a full U.S. trade embargo on Spain after the NATO ally refused to let the U.S. military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding: “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain.”
He said he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Spain.
The U.S. relocated 15 aircraft, including refuelling tankers, from the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain after the country’s Socialist leadership said it would not allow them to be used to attack Iran.
Trump again referenced Spain’s refusal to heed U.S. calls for all NATO members to spend five percent of their GDP on defence, and added: “Spain has absolutely nothing that we need.”
“All business having to do with Spain, I have the right to stop it. Embargoes – do anything I want with it – and we ..

US warns ‘hardest hit yet to come’ as its embassy in Riyadh hit in drone attackUS embassy staff in Oman have been instructed to take cover due to the risk of fresh Iranian strikes, as the four-day Middle East conflict continues to spread across the region.
“Find a secure location within your residence or another safe building,” the embassy warned in an alaert on X, advising staff and citizens to “have a supply of food, water, medications, and other essential items”.
Further Iranian retaliation is anticipated after Israel launched fresh attacks on Tehran and Beirut.
Pictures show the smouldering remains of building reduced to rubble in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital. The Israeli military had earlier said it was carrying “simultaneous targeted strikes against military targets in Tehran and Beirut”.
Israeli troops have been also deployed to southern Lebanon in a major escalation of the war in the Middle East, Israel’s defence minister has said. A military spokesperson said it..

Cyprus has claimed that the British government’s poor communication caused a drone attack on the UK base in the country, dragging them into the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The government in Nicosia also refused to rule out renegotiating the use of RAF Akrotiri, one of two bases the British have maintained since the end of colonial rule of the island in 1960.
Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told reporters on Monday: “This is something that we must say we view with dissatisfaction… There was no clear clarification that the British bases in Cyprus would under no circumstances be used for any purpose other than humanitarian reasons in Sunday’s statement by the UK prime minister.”
A drone struck RAF Akrotiri shortly after midnight on Monday, causing minor material damage to an aircraft hangar. Another two drones were intercepted by British warplanes around midday on Monday after they were scrambled from the air base.
Senior Cypriot officials say the attack was ca..

Pope Leo XIV has issued a heartfelt plea for peace amid escalating U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, warning that continuing violence risks plunging the Middle East into an “irreparable abyss.”

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday in what President Donald Trump said was a massive operation to destroy the country’s military capabilities and eliminate the threat of it creating a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it would defend its homeland as the Revolutionary Guard launched counterattacks, firing drones and missiles at Israel. Further strikes were launched at U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
The strikes follow weeks of pressure from Trump on Tehran to make a deal to constrain its nuclear program. In the lead up to the strikes, Washington built up a significant fleet of American warships in the region.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in January to bolster the number of warships in the region. The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were also dispatched from the Caribbean.
At least 165 people were reported killed at a gi..

Over 60 South African nationals, including nine children, have been deported from Ireland following an operation by the Garda National Immigration Bureau. The deportations, which took place on Saturday, were carried out under orders issued by Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan. The group removed comprised 28 men, 26 women, and nine children, all part of family units.
They left Dublin on a chartered flight on Saturday and arrived in South Africa on Sunday.
The group were accompanied on the flight by gardai members, medical staff, an interpreter and a human rights observer.
Gardai said 10 of the individuals had been convicted of offences in Ireland.
open image in galleryA United Airlines Boeing 757-224 comes in to land at Dublin Airport (PA Archive)Mr O’Callaghan said: “Charter flights are now a routine and essential part of immigration enforcement for the state.
“Without effective enforcement measures, our immigration laws would be undermined, and I want to ensure that there is publi..