World - Tuesday, June 23, 2026

Social services minister says Pauline Hanson ‘completely unsympathetic’ to financial stress of having a baby. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Ruston pushes for overhaul to controversial aged care tool Over to her portfolio, the shadow health and aged care minister, Anne Ruston , will introduce a private member’s bill to change the government’s controversial integrated assessment tool. The three things it seeks to do is to restore the discretion of a human assessor to make sure that the algorithm in their professional judgment doesn’t make an error. It also requires greater transparency so that every decision that’s made, the person can know how the algorithm was used, how professional judgment was applied, so they know why they received the level of care that they got. And we also want to make sure that anybody who has received an assessment since this algorithm computer-only decision-making mechanism has been in place, that they can have a reassessment because we believe that so many of the results have clearly been incorrect. Continue reading...

Rail company Deutsche Bahn had to pause train services across the country for more than two-and-a-half hours.

President Trump said Iran had agreed to the “highest level” inspections, hours after an Iranian official said there were “no detailed discussions on the nuclear issue,” as the two sides continued to present different narratives of their latest talks.

Firings come less than a week after US president appointed Bill Pulte as acting director after Tulsi Gabbard left the post Several staff members have reportedly been fired from the US office of the director of national intelligence (DNI), multiple outlets have reported. These firings come less than a week after Donald Trump appointed Bill Pulte as the acting director after former director Tulsi Gabbard left the post in late May. According to CNN , who was first to report the firings on Monday, political appointees with ties to Gabbard were among those purged. ABC News reported that cuts to the National Terrorism Center were expected to be particularly large. Continue reading...

It is suing the US defence department after it was added to a list of firms with ties to the Chinese military.

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Christian Miles berated Oklahoma state troopers near Washington DC landmark subject to botched renovation A Washington DC resident arrested this week near the National Mall’s reflecting pool told the Guardian he planned to fight the charges, as Donald Trump continues to blame vandals for the botched renovation of the pool. After the Trump administration spent $14.2m renovating thebody of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial to turn it “American flag” blue in time for the US’s 250th birthday next month, the pool has been beset with algae blooms and peeling paint. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the pool had been slashed with a knife. Continue reading...

The BBC spoke with Stanford University graduates about what they really think about artificial intelligence.

Gunman, 18, faces first-degree murder charges after killing two people and injuring a child at library in Butte county An 18-year-old gunman, who police said wanted to carry out a Columbine high school massacre-type shooting, was expected to face first-degree murder charges after killing two people and injuring a child at a northern California library Monday evening. Chico police dispatchers received multiple 911 calls around 5.12pm on Monday where they could hear what sounded like screaming and gunshots, Billy Aldridge, the city police chief, said during a press conference on Tuesday. Aldridge said police were on the scene and had the suspect in custody within four minutes, crediting the rapid response time for preventing more deaths. Continue reading...

Israel’s U.N. mission dismissed the report as a “libelous sham,” and called the investigating commission a “fundamentally flawed mechanism.”