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Australia news live: Bragg says ‘every back yard’ could fit a new house or granny flat as he ties Liberal party’s future to housing | Australia news
Liberal party’s future tied to strong housing policy, shadow minister says
Sarah Basford Canales
The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, will tie the Liberal’s future to adopting a strong housing policy, sounding the alarm at a centre-right event this afternoon.
Bragg, one of the party’s leading moderates, will use the address at the Centre of Independent Studies event in Sydney to warn that depopulation in former Liberal inner-city strongholds will cost the party even more votes in future elections.
In a broad speech on housing policy ideas – yet to be officially adopted by the opposition – Bragg will suggest upzoning (rezoning areas for taller buildings) and gentle density (increasing density in single-detached neighbourhoods) could increase housing supply and construction productivity in the short-term.
The shadow housing minister will say:
Put simply, we need more buildings. It doesn’t matter what they are. We need to build like mad. We need to think outside the box – every back yard could potentially host a new house or granny flat if the owner wanted it.
Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
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Some images from the bushfire-affected Koolewong area in NSW
Firefighters mop up after a bushfire engulfed homes in the Koolewong area on the Central Coast, New South Wales. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/EPAHomes in Koolewong. Photograph: ABC NewsFlames near a train line in New South Wales. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesFirefighters work to put out a bushfire spreading through the Koolewong area. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/EPAShare
Ben Smee
Another legal challenge to Queensland’s ban on puberty blockers
Queensland’s LGBTI Legal Service has filed a second challenge to the state’s controversial ban on puberty blockers, on behalf of a client who was denied treatment in the state system.
The government first banned public health services from prescribing puberty blockers to “new patients” in January.
In October, the supreme court ruled the first ban was unlawful, due to a lack of consultation. The government instituted a second ban within hours of it being overturned.
The young person at the centre of the case was deemed a “new patient” under the first ban in January, and subsequently sought treatment for gender dysphoria as a private patient. Private treatments can be significantly more expensive.
After the first ban was overturned, the young person then sought treatment as a public patient, on the grounds they were not a “new patient” because they had begun gender-affirming care before the second ban was implemented. They claim they were refused treatment.
The court challenge seeks an order that anyone who began gender-affirming care before 28 October – when the second ban was instituted – should not be considered a “new patient”.
The mother of the young person said:
The ministerial direction was made with lightning speed but, yet again, was made without input from trans young people and their parents and without consulting anyone with expertise in treating trans young people.
Seven hours wasn’t even long enough for the minister to prepare a direction that was clear and unambiguous, let alone adequately consider all of the issues.
The legal services says it has lodged separate discrimination and human rights cases.
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Benita Kolovos
Complaint argues Melbourne CBD designation in breach of human rights charter
The challenge over the Melbourne CBD “designated area” will argue the six-month designation over such a large area is invalid because it is not “necessary” to address the risk of weapons offences and that it is a breach of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, including people’s rights to peaceful assembly and privacy, as well as freedom of expression and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.
It also argues that police powers in designated areas – requiring people to remove face coverings and ordering them to move on if they refuse – are unconstitutional because they interfere with the protected freedom of political communication, which includes the right to peaceful assembly.
Tarneen Onus Browne says they are bringing the case because they are worried about the impact of the designated area on human rights and safety in the CBD – including during the Invasion Day rally. They said:
These new police powers will supercharge the harassment and targeting of our community on this important day, and deter First Nations people and allies from showing up and exercising their right to protest. Every year we tell people to wear facemasks at Invasion Day to protect all of us from spreadable illnesses like Covid-19, especially disabled people and our Elders. Empowering police to order protesters to remove their facemasks endangers us all.
Zable – whose retired versions of his Greedozer costume are on display in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney – says it is both performance art and a political statement. Recently, he’s been told to remove it in the CBD:
I go to many protests in the Melbourne CBD, which is the heart of protest in the city. I have already been told to remove my mask in designated areas. I’m worried that police will now have more powers to use more violence against me, as well as other people who wear masks for all sorts of reasons, including vulnerable people.
Benny Zable in his Greedozer costume. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.23 CET
Melbourne CBD ‘designated area’ decision to be challenged in federal court
Benita Kolovos
Two Victorians have filed a legal and constitutional challenge against a police decision to declare Melbourne’s CBD and its surrounds a “designated area” for six months, allowing for warrantless pat-down searches.
Tarneen Onus Browne and Benny Zable will hold a press conference this morning to announce the challenge, which they want heard by the federal court before an Invasion Day rally planned for 26 January.
Onus Browne is a Gunditjmara, Yorta Yorta, Bindal and Meriam community organiser involved in the annual Naarm Invasion Day rally in Melbourne’s CBD, while Zable is an 80-year-old performance artist, who has worn his “Greedozer” costume – complete with a gas mask – to hundreds of environmental and anti-war actions protests.
Their lawyer Sarah Schwartz from the Human Rights Law Centre says:
We’re proud to represent Tarneen and Benny to challenge this decision by the assistant commissioner of Victoria police to hand police extraordinary powers to stop and search anyone in the city for the next six months, for no reason, and order people to leave the designated area if they refuse a request to remove their face mask.
This is about pushing back against ever-expanding police powers in Victoria which make all of us less safe in our own city. The powers provided to Victoria police within designated areas are extraordinary and ripe for abuses of power.
Activist and artist Benny Zable, pictured in 2019. Photograph: David Maurice Smith/OculiShare
Updated at 23.14 CET
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Albanese and Ley respond to tragic firefighter death
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has issued a statement after the death of a firefighter who was battling a blaze at Bulahdelah on the NSW mid-north coast.
Albanese said:
My heart goes out to the loved ones and colleagues of the firefighter who has tragically lost their life in the Bulahdelah bushfire. All Australians are thinking of you in your time of grief.
This terrible news is a sombre reminder of the dangers that our emergency services personnel face to keep our homes and communities safe – and the extraordinary courage that their job demands. We honour that bravery, every day.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has also responded to the “devastating news” via a post to X.
All Australians are with the firefighter’s family, friends and the team who worked beside him. Our emergency services put themselves in harm’s way to keep Australians safe. Today we mourn this terrible loss.
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Nineteen homes lost in Tasmania bushfires and 16 in NSW blazes
There are 60 bushfires burning across NSW this morning and 11 in Tasmania, with many spurred by hot, dry, windy conditions just a few days into summer.
The NSW Rural Fire Service said last night at least 16 homes have been destroyed and nine others damaged during a devastating blaze in Koolewong on the Central Coast north of Sydney.
In Tasmania’s Dolphin Sands, 33 homes have sustained damage in a bushfire, 19 of which have been completely destroyed. Officials have warned that increasing winds and debris pose ongoing safety risks to the area.
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Updated at 23.24 CET
NSW national parks service confirms firefighter killed by tree at Bulahdelah
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) just released a statement after the premier confirmed a firefighter died overnight battling a blaze.
Alex Graham, the deputy secretary of the NPWS, said in a statement:
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is very saddened to confirm the death of one of our firefighters overnight.
At approximately 11pm Sunday the firefighter was struck by a tree while working on a bushfire at Bulahdelah on the state’s Mid North Coast.
Fellow firefighters provided first aid until NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene.
Our thoughts are with the firefighter’s family during this difficult time.
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Updated at 22.30 CET
‘It’s a very, very sad day’
Jihad Dib, the NSW emergency services minister, said the firefighter who died was working with the national parks and wildlife firefighting team on the mid-north coast.
It’s just a reminder of the dangers that firefighters face. And these are people who put themselves in harm’s way to protect community. And this particular person has made the ultimate sacrifice. It’s a very, very sad day for all of us.
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Updated at 22.17 CET
Sarah Basford Canales
Bragg to say it’s ‘not a good thing’ homes are ‘largely unaffordable’
Andrew Bragg’s housing speech this afternoon will urge the Liberals to seriously consider policies that will seriously address housing affordability for younger people.
Referencing former prime minister John Howard’s quote on rising house prices being a good thing in 2003, Bragg will acknowledge the cost of buying a first home is now “too high” in Australia.
Bragg will say:
It is not a good thing that first homes in this country are largely unaffordable. Try telling a 30 year old who has been working and saving for 10 years that it’s good that house prices continue to rise faster than their salary. Housing cannot be a zero sum game. It cannot be treated wholly as an investment opportunity. Australia is a home owning democracy. If people don’t own homes, our system falls apart.
The shadow housing minister will say the $5bn pledge under former opposition leader, Peter Dutton, to develop greenfield sites was a good start but not nearly enough.
Bragg will address cutting migration as an option in reducing housing demand but that it will not “singularly fix the housing crisis”:
We also have to make sure that migration policies are driving people into the country who can actually build homes. We are short 80,000 tradies. Last year, we only received 4,000 on visas.
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More than a dozen homes lost in bushfires on NSW Central Coast
Chris Minns said more than a dozen houses were lost on the Central Coast of NSW, but the situation could have been much worse.
I’m very grateful that people listen to police and firefighters, particularly on the Central Coast, because the situation could have been far, far worse.
We lost more than a dozen houses, but no lives were lost on the Central Coast, and I think that’s because of the hard work and dedication of firefighters, but also the fact that members of the community were prepared, listened to emergency services, and got out when they were told to.
NSW premier Chris Minns. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/AAPShare
Updated at 22.18 CET
Firefighter dies in NSW during bushfires
New South Wales premier Chris Minns has said a member of the national parks firefighting team has died on firegrounds in the state.
Minns said a man was likely killed by a tree, “obviously a terrible reminder of how difficult and dangerous this work is and how the people who put their lives on the line to protect lives and property do an incredible job for us in this state”.
“It’s a deeply distressing turn of events, and a sad day for New South Wales this morning,” Minns told ABC News Breakfast.
There are about 700 firefighters across NSW working today to contain the blazes, including nine that remain uncontained.
Minns said it was “quite a foreboding beginning to the beginning of the bushfire season”.
A waterbombing helicopter flying over a bushfire in the Hunter region at the weekend. Photograph: Ayush Kumar/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 21.59 CET
Report finds many Australians with psychosocial disabilities falling through support gap
Sarah Basford Canales
More than 130,000 Australians with psychosocial disabilities are slipping through a support gap, receiving neither NDIS or health system care, a new report by the Grattan Institute has found.
The report, released Sunday night, said the NDIS provided nearly $6bn to support about 66,000 people with psychosocial disabilities last year but more than 130,000 received nothing from either the disability insurance scheme or mental health system.
The institute’s disability program director, Sam Bennett, said a new national program should be established outside the NDIS but using existing contributions to fix the gap without adding to the scheme’s funding pressures.
Bennett said:
Rebalancing the system so there are stronger recovery-oriented supports available inside and outside the NDIS would transform the lives of Australians with psychosocial disability and make better use of existing funds.
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Liberal party’s future tied to strong housing policy, shadow minister says
Sarah Basford Canales
The shadow housing minister, Andrew Bragg, will tie the Liberal’s future to adopting a strong housing policy, sounding the alarm at a centre-right event this afternoon.
Bragg, one of the party’s leading moderates, will use the address at the Centre of Independent Studies event in Sydney to warn that depopulation in former Liberal inner-city strongholds will cost the party even more votes in future elections.
In a broad speech on housing policy ideas – yet to be officially adopted by the opposition – Bragg will suggest upzoning (rezoning areas for taller buildings) and gentle density (increasing density in single-detached neighbourhoods) could increase housing supply and construction productivity in the short-term.
The shadow housing minister will say:
Put simply, we need more buildings. It doesn’t matter what they are. We need to build like mad. We need to think outside the box – every back yard could potentially host a new house or granny flat if the owner wanted it.
Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Good morning
Good morning, and happy Monday. Nick Visser here to jumpstart the day’s blog. Here’s what’s on deck:
Andrew Bragg, the shadow housing minister, will use a speech later today to tie the future of the Liberal party to a strong housing policy. He will suggest upzoning and gentle density could increase housing supply and construction productivity in an address at the Centre of Independent Studies.
Dozens of homes have been destroyed across New South Wales and Tasmania amid a spate of bushfires, spurred by hot, dry, windy conditions this weekend. 60 fires are still burning across NSW and 11 in Tasmania.
Stick with us.
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Mum-of-two Cherie Townsend was found to have stabbed 66-year-old Susan Leeds to death more than seven years after her phone was recovered from the grisly scene in California
Cherie Townsend was found guilty of killing 66-year-old retired nurse Susan Leeds(Image: MediaNews Group via Getty Images)
A mum-of-two stabbed a retired nurse to death so she could score the money she needed to send her daughter to cheerleading camp, a court has found.
Cherie Townsend, 47, killed 66-year-old Susan Leeds on May 3, 2018, after descending on her in the parking structure of a shopping mall in Rolling Hills Estates, California. Townsend plunged the knife into her victim 17 times in what has been described as a “brutal” attack following an attempted robbery.
Townsend has now been convicted following a mammoth seven-year legal battle, with the mum having initially claimed she was innocent and being unfairly targeted by law enforcement.
READ MORE: Moment knifeman pretends to be victim after stabbing woman eight times in her homeREAD MORE: Putin sends man who ‘skinned wife over soup’ to frontline as killer dodges trial
Jurors found that Townsend had personally wielded a knife in Leeds’ killing(Image: MediaNews Group via Getty Images)
The mum was arrested for the first time following the killing in May 2018 after her phone was found at the scene, but was released six days later after prosecutors requested additional evidence from investigators. As the investigation unfolded, Townsend suded the Los Angeles county Sheriff’s Department, claiming in October 2018 that she had been subject to racial discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress while being falsely imprisoned and detained.
“I live my life in hiding, afraid that the police are going to come or that I’m gonna be unjustly targeted like I was before,” she said in an interview conducted at the time. She was rearrested five years later in August 2023 and charged with murder, resulting in her conviction on Thursday, December 4 for murder in the first degree.
Townsend had claimed she was at the shopping mall at the time of Ms Leeds’ death in aid of her son’s prom, but was unable to explain why her phone was found underneath the car where the dead former nurse was found stabbed to death. In a criminal complaint, it was stated that Townsend had at the time been looking for ways to put $2,000 (£1,501) together, and had said in a note on her phone that she was “completely broken” because she had been unable to come up with the cash.
At one point during the long legal process, Leeds sued California sheriffs(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Townsend has long maintained her innocence, claiming she had dropped her phone while at the mall, and her public defender noted during the trial that no direct evidence had linked her client to the killing, including fingerprints, DNA, witnesses or video footage. While Ms Leeds’ purse was missing, she was still wearing her jewelry, and there was no evidence someone had tried to use her cards, cash or cheques following her death.
However Jurors ultimately decided she had personally used a knife to end Ms Leeds’ life. Fred Leeds, Ms Leeds’ stepson, told local outlet KTLA that “so many lives were impacted by this murder”, adding his stepmother “lived a great life”.
Mr Leeds said: “She lived a great life… a kind human being that would have done anything for anyone, and to be so brutally murdered, there’s just no explanation for it. ” I want to first start out by thanking the police and sheriff’s department in the pursuit of this murder. She didn’t have to be murdered for her purse.”
Townsend, who faces more than 20 years behind bars, will be sentenced on January 23, 2026.
WORLD NEWS
Israeli government accused of intimidation and harassment after raid on UN building in Jerusalem | World News
The Israeli government has been accused of intimidation, harassment and a “blatant disregard” of its obligations by the United Nations after Israeli officials raided a UN building in Jerusalem.
Police officers, along with officials from the town council, entered the East Jerusalem compound of UNRWA, the UN agency that provides services to Palestinian refugees.
The compound has been empty since January, when the Israeli government ordered UNRWA to close the building, accusing the agency of being “infested” with members of Hamas.
The United Nations denied that accusation vehemently.
Read more: What were UNRWA workers in Gaza accused of?
Having gained entry to the compound, the officials filled vehicles with possessions, including office furniture, and raised an Israeli flag in place of the United Nations flag.
They claimed that the building had been raided because UNRWA owed around hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of local taxes.
However, under the UN charter, UN buildings are exempt from such taxes and are also considered “inviolable”, meaning that, rather than raiding the building, Israel has an obligation to protect it.
Since its staff were told to leave, there have been attempts to break into the compound, which has been secured by a team of guards employed by the UN.
Sky News has been told that, when the Israeli officials arrived on Monday morning, the security guards were detained in a room within the compound.
“We didn’t let them in when they first came to the compound, but they cut the chains and the locks and took control,” said George, the head of security, who was standing outside the front gate when we arrived.
“They told my guards to stay in one room, took their phones from them, and told them they couldn’t leave.”
‘The false accusations led to this’
UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said the raid was “a blatant disregard of Israel’s obligation as a United Nations Member State to protect and respect the inviolability of UN premises”.
He said that failing to cooperate with UN agencies “represent a new challenge to international law, one that creates a dangerous precedent anywhere else the UN is present across the world”.
His anger was not isolated. Outside the gates of the UNRWA compound, we met Hakam Shahwam, who used to work here as UNRWA’s chief of staff. It was, he said, “a very sad day”.
Shahwam says the claims that UNRWA was a breeding ground for Hamas had led to the raid.
He told me: “The false accusations led to this. This is a shameful day, not only for the United Nations but also for the government of Israel.
“There must be a strong protest, and a response from the international community. This is unacceptable.”
Read more from Adam Parsons:
Gaza longs for normality, but quasi-anarchy reigns
Israeli forces kill two Palestinians after apparent surrender
‘It is time for UNRWA to be dismantled’
The Israeli government remains adamant that its criticism of UNRWA is justified.
When I asked Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the raid, she said: “UNRWA is a stain on the United Nations.”
She added: “It is time for UNRWA to be dismantled. It is not part of the solution for Gaza, it is part of the problem.”
She did not comment on the legality of the raid, or on Israel’s ongoing commitment to the UN Charter.
NewsFeed
Footage shows Thai civilians huddling in bunkers and Cambodian children fleeing classrooms after Thailand launched dawn airstrikes on Cambodian border forces on Monday. Both nations accuse the other of breaching a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump. At least four Cambodian civilians were killed.
Published On 8 Dec 2025
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David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is not giving up in its aggressive campaign to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), launching a hostile bid for the entertainment company despite the announcement on Friday that Netflix had agreed to buy its studio and streaming operation.
Netflix’s bid for WBD’s storied Hollywood movie studio, as well as its premier HBO cable network, valued the company at $82.7bn. But it did not agree to acquire WBD’s traditional television assets, including the news network CNN and the Discovery channel.
Paramount’s all-cash tender offer sent directly to shareholders on Monday morning would be for the entire company, and puts a total enterprise value of $108.4bn on WBD, a major premium to its stock price.
In making its case to shareholders, Paramount claimed its acquisition of the company provides significantly better value for shareholders, and would be much likelier to survive regulatory scrutiny. WBD said it would “carefully review and consider” the bid, and advise its shareholders on how to respond within two weeks.
David Ellison and his father, the billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, whose family is financially backing the offer, are both friendly with the Trump administration, which had previously indicated that it supported a Paramount purchase of WBD. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, had even had early conversations with a senior Trump aide about what changes he might want to see at CNN.
Donald Trump has praised recent changes at Paramount since its acquisition by the Ellisons, including the selection of the heterodox writer Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News. Paramount is also bringing back the Rush Hour franchise for a fourth film, reportedly at the request of Trump.
Shortly before the Ellisons won regulatory approval for their takeover of Paramount, the firm agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump, who had claimed a pre-election interview with the 2024 Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris, was falsely edited. Many legal experts had dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment.
A regulatory filing on Monday revealed that the Ellisons’ bid for WBD was backed by outside funders including Affinity Partners, an investment fund founded by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner; Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund; and the Qatar Investment Authority.
In a statement, David Ellison called the Netflix deal “an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process”.
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” he said. “Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros Discovery board of directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.”
Ellison’s Paramount Skydance had already made several offers that were rejected during the bidding process for WBD. The company said on Monday it was concerned that shareholders “were not presented [the] most compelling and superior transaction”.
Last week, attorneys for Paramount sent a letter to WBD suggesting the company was not fairly considering its offer. “It has become increasingly clear, through media reporting and otherwise, that WBD appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process, thereby abdicating its duties to stockholders, and embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder,” they wrote.
Netflix’s proposed acquisition of the studio and streaming assets of WBD fleetingly provided some relief for some employees at CNN, who had been concerned about the prospects of a merger between the network and CBS News, now led by Weiss.
“I think this is the best outcome for CNN for sure,” a senior network producer told the Guardian after the Netflix acquisition was announced, describing a “palpable sense of relief” at the network. But, the person added, “there is still a hell of a lot of anxiety around the Discovery Global spin-off and what comes next”.
In a memo to CNN employees on Friday, the network’s CEO, Mark Thompson, framed the deal as a positive. “I’ve been asked by many of you what today’s news means for us,” he wrote. “And the answer is that it will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition.”
Some employees at CBS News had also feared a merger with CNN’s parent company, and that a tie-up could lead to significant job losses. “A merger with CNN is the one thing that would make me genuinely worried about losing my job,” one CBS News staffer said. (Paramount’s offer on Monday noted that the combination of television networks would “dramatically improve cash flow and increase efficiencies, leading to a division more capable of managing structural declines”.)
Paramount’s offer on Monday for WBD could re-ignite those concerns for employees at both networks. If the Netflix deal moves forward, however, CNN will be spun off – as planned – into a standalone company, encompassing WBD’s traditional television networks, from Cartoon Network to TLC.
On a conference call with analysts, David Ellison did not answer a question about whether he would be interested in acquiring the television group by itself if the greater Netflix deal goes through.
On Sunday evening, before Paramount tabled its hostile bid, Trump had said he would be personally involved in the review for the Netflix-WBD transaction, which he said would have implications for competition considering Netflix’s “big market share”. But he had kind words for Netflix’s co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, who visited the White House recently.
Several US politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, and entertainment unions, however, had expressed strong reservations about the deal.
Because no television licenses would be transferred in a potential acquisition, the acquisition of WBD is very unlikely to be subject to the review of the Federal Communications Commission and its Trump-picked chair, Brendan Carr. But anti-trust concerns around any such deal would be reviewed by the Department of Justice.
“Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer,” the company said on Monday, “as it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice.”
The Ellisons’ offer is set to expire at 5pm on 8 January, unless it is extended.
On the Monday call, David Ellison said the company’s offers for WBD had not received a response. “We’re here to fight for value – for our shareholders and for WBD shareholders,” he said. “This transaction is about building more, not cutting back … Our proposal is superior to Netflix’s in every dimension.”
While Trump has been very supportive of the Ellisons’ takeover of CBS News, he lashed out at the network and its new management on Monday morning for a 60 Minutes broadcast the night before, featuring the outgoing GOP House member Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told correspondent Lesley Stahl that many Republican legislators privately mocked Trump.
“My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
Watch: CCTV shows moment earthquake hits Japan
A major earthquake of magnitude 7.6 has hit Japan’s north-eastern region.
The quake occurred at 23:15 (14:15 GMT) at a depth of 50km (31 miles), about 80km off the coast of the Aomori region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said,
It prompted tsunami warnings which have now been downgraded to advisories, while waves of 40cm (16in) were seen in some places.
Local media reports that some people in the region have been injured, while trains have been suspended as a precaution.
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes.
Orders were issued for about 90,000 residents to evacuate, according to Reuters news agency.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK quoted a hotel employee in Hachinohe as saying a number of people had been injured.
The government has set up a response office within the prime minister’s crisis management centre and convened an emergency team, chief cabinet secretary Minoru Kihara has said.
“We are making every effort to assess the damage and implement emergency disaster response measures, including rescue and relief operations,” he added.
AFP via Getty Images
Japanese TV broadcast mesages which said “Tsunami! Run!” and “Tsunami warning issued for central Hokkaido’s Pacific Coast”
No irregularities were reported at the Higashidori and Onagawa nuclear power plants as a result of the quake, Tohoku Electric Power said.
None were detected either at the disabled Fukushima nuclear power station site, the Japanese authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Fukushima was damaged when a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off the country’s eastern coast on 11 March 2011.
That quake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, triggered a tsunami which swept over the main island of Honshu, killing more than 18,000 people and wiping entire towns off the map.
NEED TO KNOW
- Leona Lewis is in the midst of her Las Vegas residency, A Starry Night
- In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, Lewis opens up about her marriage to husband Dennis Jauch and their 3-year-old daughter Carmel
- Lewis recalls meeting Jauch when he was a dancer on her 2010 Labrynth Tour
Leona Lewis’ life is full of love.
The British singer-songwriter is currently in the midst of her 33-date A Starry Night residency at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, for which she’s relocated to the Nevada city with husband Dennis Jauch and their 3-year-old daughter Carmel.
Taking the stage feels different for Lewis as a wife and mother, especially when she sings her chart-topping hit “Bleeding Love,” as its meaning has changed for her since its release in 2007. “To me it was about a romantic love,” she reflects to PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “When I sing it now, I think about [Carmel] and what she’s opened me up to and how deep that love goes.”
It’s a full-circle moment for performing to now make Lewis think about her family, as she met Jauch — who won the German TV series You Can Dance in 2007 — when he was a dancer on her 2010 Labyrinth Tour.
“I think we connected because we’d been through two very similar shows,” says Lewis, who won the U.K. version of The X Factor in 2006. “Plus, he saved me on stage.”
During a show on the Labrynth Tour, Jauch caught Lewis after she nearly fell into a hole on stage. “So I had to marry him,” she quips.
The pair tied the knot in July 2019, and their bond remains strong to this day. “You can have these little disagreements and arguments and things, but at the end of the day, we always say this to each other: ‘Remember we’re on the same team,’” says Lewis.
They welcomed Carmel three years after marrying, which dramatically changed her perspective on everything — not just her breakout hit. “I am a different woman to who I was before I had Coco,” she says. “Now I have to make sure this human is okay in the world and also hopefully making a positive impact.”
Dennis Jauch, Leona Lewis and Carmel Jauch.
Leona Lewis/Instagram
Carmel saw her first concert last year when Lewis took her to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, and she’s already looking to follow in her mom’s footsteps. “Last night she was like, ‘Mama, I’m going to come onstage with you,’” Lewis says. “I’m like, ‘Okay, what are you going to do—dance, sing?’ She’s like, ‘I want to do both.’”
Connecting with fans in Las Vegas has inspired Lewis to start working on a new album, her first since 2015’s I Am. But the pressure will be easier to navigate living under the same roof as her two biggest fans.
“No matter what’s going on, when you’re at your peak and everyone’s playing your song, and then when you’re just quiet and things are more still,” she says, “they are always the constant to me.”
A woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has been released on bond by a U.S. immigration from ICE detention center in Louisiana.
The judge released Brazilian woman Bruna Ferreira, 33, on a $1,500 bond as she continues to argue her case against a potential deportation.
Ferreira shares custody of an 11-year-old son with her former fiancé Michael Leavitt, the brother of Trump’s press secretary.
ICE agents arrested Ferreira on November 12 while she was on her way to pick up her son from school. She has been detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center for the last month.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Leavitt’s White House for comment.
Immigration Judge Cynthia Goodman released Ferreira on the lowest possible bail amount on Monday.
Ferreira’s attorney Jason Thomas told the judge that the government’s claims that his client is a ‘criminal illegal alien’ with a prior arrest for battery is ‘both unfair and untrue.’
Ferreira claimed in a recent interview with Washington Post that Karoline Leavitt was chosen to be the child’s godmother.
Bruna Ferreira, seen here with her son Michael, has been left to languish inside an ICE Processing Center in Louisiana since her arrest
Ferreira said that she once saw White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as a younger sister
Bruna Ferreira was nabbed by officers on November 12 while attempting to leave her condo in Revere, Massachusetts
The attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security, Lucas Vega, did not argue against the judge releasing Ferreira from ICE detention on bond.
The Trump administration typically has sought to limit bond for illegal immigrants in past cases.
Vega agreed with her defense council that Ferreira is not a danger to society or a flight risk.
Ferreira’s attorneys argued she still shares custody of her son with Karoline’s brother, and often is in frequent contact with the Leavitt family.
Ferreira has no prior criminal convictions and has been a longtime resident in Massachusetts.
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Karoline Leavitt’s family member is freed after ICE arrest
DISTRESSING CONTENT Rafis Khuzin has been accused of killing and then attempting to dismember his own wife during a brutal attack in Berezovsky, near Yekaterinburg in Russia
Rafis Khuzin allegedly killed and tried to dismember his wife(Image: Social media/east2west news)
Vladimir Putin has sent a man alleged to have killed and skinned his own wife after she refused to cook him chicken soup to the Ukraine frontline instead of a murder trial in a desperate bid to beef up Russian ranks in Ukraine.
Rafis Khuzin, 56, will not face justice for his twisted alleged crimes due to Russian battlefield losses, with the accused murderer set to join troops on the frontlines. The pardon will mean he is exempt from facing a murder trial, with Russian laws rewarding prisoners and would-be convicts conscripted during the war effort.
Khuzin, however, was accused of the particularly gruesome murder of his own wife, Olga Blinova, 49, who he reportedly stabbed to death with a large kitchen knife, before attempting to skin her.
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Khuzin allegedly killed his wife when she refused to help him chop chicken(Image: Social media/east2west news)
According to local reports, after killing Blinova, Khuzin is alleged to have skinned the upper part of her corpse before stashing it in his garden shed. He is said to have waited five days before eventually reporting the killing to law enforcement in Berezovsky, near Yekaterinburg.
The news outlet Baza reported that he had descended on his wife after she refused to cut up pieces of chicken while making a soup. After stabbing her, the outlet added that he had then attempted to dismember her lifeless body, but was unable to do so.
Instead, he was only able to “remove the skin from the upper part of her body”, it was alleged. Police attending the scene were “shocked by what they found” despite having “seen plenty of horrifying scenes over the course of their careers”, a police spokesperson said.
Blinova was allegedly killed by Khuzin as he made chicken soup(Image: Social media/east2west news)
Police spokesman Valery Gorelykh said: “Even the detectives, who have seen plenty of horrifying scenes over the course of their careers, were shocked by what they found when they arrived first at the scene.”
Additional reports claimed Khuzin’s wife had expected him to make the chicken soup while she was out. Alexander Shulga, of the Russian Investigative Committee, said the conflict arose after the woman came home from work and “criticised him for not preparing dinner”.
He demanded that she cut the chicken and make the soup but she refused. A source close to the investigation said the alleged killer had quickly conscripted before the murder trial could begin.
Khuzin took up a conscription deal before his trial began(Image: Social media/east2west news)
They claimed: “He didn’t wait for the trial and signed a contract with the military.” He had already pleaded guilty to a crime which could have seen him jailed for 15 years, but due to Russian laws passed following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he will not face trial or any prison time.
After serving in the war, he will be a free man. The Russian Investigative Committee in Sverdlovsk declined to comment.
More than 100 people including 63 children were killed in attacks on a kindergarten and hospital in Sudan, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The attacks on 4 December began with repeated strikes on the kindergarten in South Kordofan state.
It continued even as parents and caretakers rushed to the wounded in a nearby hospital, WHO added.
It comes as Sudan‘s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said today it had taken control of the strategic Heglig oilfield in the South Kordofan province, two and a half years into the country’s civil war.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X: “Repeated strikes in Sudan’s South Kordofan state hit a kindergarten and, at least three times, the nearby Kalogi Rural Hospital, killing 114 people, including 63 children, and injuring 35 people, according to WHO’s Attacks on Health Care monitoring system.
“Survivors from the 4 December attacks have been moved to Abu Jebaiha, in South Kordofan, for treatment, and urgent calls are being made for blood donations and other medical support.
“Disturbingly, paramedics and responders came under attack as they tried to move the injured from the kindergarten to the hospital.”
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‘Horrifying’ war in Sudan continues
Heglig, lying along Sudan’s south border, houses the main processing facility for South Sudanese oil, which makes up much of the revenue for South Sudan’s government.
Government forces and workers at the oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid clashes that could have damaged oil facilities, government sources told the news agency Reuters.
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As oil is transported through the Greater Nile pipeline system to Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export, it makes the Heglig site essential for Sudan’s hard-currency earnings – and for South Sudan.
The WHO added that a massacre also occurred in October in the city of al-Fashir.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, which it says were carried out by the Rapid Support Forces using drones.
The WHO said a total of 114 people, including 63 children, were killed in the attacks, with heavy weapons used. 35 were also wounded.
The toll combines casualties from the kindergarten strikes, the transfer of patients to the adjacent rural hospital and attacks at the facility itself.
The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
WORLD NEWS
Ukraine firefighters rush to rescue people, pets after Russian strike | Russia-Ukraine war
NewsFeed
Firefighters evacuated residents and their pets from a nine-storey apartment building in Ukraine’s Sumy region after a Russian drone strike. The strikes come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with leaders of the UK, France and Germany in London to discuss the US peace plan.
Published On 8 Dec 2025
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