Good morning. Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit Jamaica since records began in 1851, made landfall at about midday local time on Tuesday. With winds reaching 185mph and torrential rains, it knocked out power lines, cut off the internet, and demolished buildings; the death toll and extent
Read more: Jamaica reels after ‘catastrophic’ Category 5 hurricaneSummary of the talks In case you’re just joining us, here’s a rundown on what happened at the high-stakes talks between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in South Korea. Trump said afterwards that Washington’s dispute with Beijing over the supply of rare earths has been settled, China would resume buying
Read more: Trump says rare-earths dispute resolved after meeting with XiDonald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to immediately start matching other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, specifically citing Russia and China. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said “because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start
Read more: Trump Orders Pentagon to Match Russia and China TestsAfter waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days, as his US counterpart talks up cooperation on rare earths and other issues. Albanese followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific
Read more: Trump praises meeting with Albanese at Apec dinnerIn chaotic Senate scenes, Labor has set a 125-year record by keeping question time running for more than three hours, after the government lost control of the chamber and threatened to strip Coalition members from parliamentary committees in a fight over transparency. Senator David Pocock led a push
Read more: Senate question time turns marathon over transparency clashMorning opening: Goedemorgen Jakub Krupa The vote count is almost done in the Dutch parliamentary election, with the far-right PVV party of anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders narrowly ahead of the centrist D66 with 99.6% votes counted. People count votes at the NDSM Warehouse the day after the
Read more: Dutch vote count: PVV and D66 neck-and-neckRichard Branson’s train company is a step closer to challenging Eurostar’s monopoly on transporting passengers across the Channel after the UK rail regulator approved Virgin Trains’ application to use a key depot in east London. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) approved Virgin’s application to use
Read more: Virgin Trains cleared to use Temple Mills, to challenge EurostarIsrael carried out another strike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least two people, after bombarding the territory overnight and killing at least 104 Palestinians, including children, in the gravest challenge yet to the increasingly fragile US-brokered ceasefire. The Israeli military said
Read more: Israel Strikes Gaza After Overnight Bombardment Killed At Least 104Greek authorities have stepped up security in two harbours in an attempt to keep protesters away from a cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists on an 11-day tour around the Mediterranean. The measures taken at Patras and Katakolo in the Peloponnese followed demonstrations when the MS Crown Iris docke
Read more: Greece boosts security after protests at Israeli cruise shipIsraeli warplanes struck Gaza on Tuesday night, shortly after Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered the military to carry out “powerful strikes” in Gaza, in the most serious test of the increasingly shaky US-brokered ceasefire. Witnesses reported seeing Israeli planes launch strikes o
Read more: Israel Strikes Gaza After Netanyahu Accuses Hamas of Ceasefire BreachA teenager from Gaza who has been denied an opportunity to attend school in Britain and be reunited with her mother has said she is “stuck in hell”, despite other European countries making exceptions for students from the region. Dania Alafranji, 16, was accepted on to the Nsouli Scholars Programme
Read more: Gazan Teen Denied UK Visa Says She Is 'Stuck in Hell'The International Committee of the Red Cross has accompanied members of Hamas inside areas of Gaza still under the control of the Israeli military to facilitate the search for the bodies of Israeli hostages, as the Palestinian militant group delivered the remains of another captive. Under the US-bro
Read more: Hamas returns remains after Red Cross‑facilitated Gaza search
