As it happened: Three men found guilty of downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17; emergency management minister says current planning laws not suitable

The missile had sufficient range to reach the mainland of the United States, he said.

US Vice President Kamala Harris convened an impromptu meeting with Kishida and the leaders of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea to discuss the missile launch.

“We strongly condemn these actions, and we again call for North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts,” she said at the start of the meeting. “I reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances. Together, the countries represented here will continue to urge North Korea to commit to serious and sustained diplomacy.”

Albanese called the missile launches reckless and unprecedented.

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Reuters, with agencies

A spokesperson for the Saudi consulate in Washington could not be reached for comment after business hours.

“This is a legal determination made by the State Department under longstanding and well-established principles of customary international law,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a written statement. “It has nothing to do with the merits of the case.”

The spokesperson referred further questions to the State and Justice departments.

In a document filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Department attorneys wrote that “the doctrine of head of state immunity is well established in customary international law”.

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Reuters, AP

Experts from the left’s Per Capita Australia and the right’s Blueprint Institute benchmarked 20 pieces of legislation against 10 separate criteria.

They included whether there was a need for the law, its objectives, alternative options, how it would work, if a government considered all the pros and cons, parliamentary debate and the consultation process.

The worst-ranked piece of legislation by both think tanks was the Morrison government’s change to federal electoral law that increased the number of members a party must have to be registered to 1500, from 500. It also stops a party that has a similar name to an existing party from being registered.

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All the while, two people said, resignations started to roll in. By the deadline, 5pm EST, hundreds of Twitter employees appeared to have decided to depart with three months of severance pay, the people said, following an ultimatum from new owner Elon Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity”, or leave.

In a poll on the workplace app Blind, which verifies employees through their work email addresses and allows them to share information anonymously, 42 per cent of 180 people chose the answer for “Taking exit option, I’m free!”

A quarter said they had chosen to stay “reluctantly”, and only 7 per cent of the poll participants said they “clicked yes to stay, I’m hardcore”.

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Reuters, with The New York Times

Towns like Molong – and its neighbours in the region – are already having to adjust to the new rhythm of extreme drought, flood and fire. Residents who remain will need to become models of resilience and survival on the climate change frontline. But for some, the never-ending cycle of extremes is already too much for them to bear.

This week, Molong and its neighbours have been put to the test, again. More than 100 millimetres of rain fell in 24 hours, adding more water to an already saturated landscape.

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“Because I know somebody will be better than me, and that’s my aim - they come through and go on to do bigger things than I’ve done. That’s why every day I’ve dedicated myself to working hard, to pushing those limits, so they can know, ‘OK, one of us can make it there. I’m going to make it even further.’”

Want a glimpse of the real Australia? Look no further than the Socceroos. This national team, more than any other, has always been the truest reflection of the country’s ethnic diversity and shifting demographics.

A century ago, when Australia played its first international match against New Zealand in 1922, the team was filled with workers of English, Scottish and Irish stock. After World War II, as an influx of European migrants set sail in search of a better life, it was Italians, Greeks, Croatians, Serbians, Macedonians and so many others proudly wearing the green and gold.

It’s fitting that the Socceroos’ first match in Qatar is against France, given roughly half of their squad is infused with African flavour. Superstars like Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and injured midfielders N’golo Kante and Paul Pogba, all grew up in France, but can trace their heritage to countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritius, Mali and Guinea.

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The government will also target oil, gas and power generation companies with a windfall tax as it seeks to address its spiralling debt, turbulent financial markets and restore confidence in its floundering economy.

The United Kingdom is experiencing the biggest fall in living standards since records began. Soaring oil and gas prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have sent household energy bills to record highs.

The new measures are an effort to reverse those statistics and also bring in £14 billion to help pay for costly inflation-linked pension increases.

The measures, announced late on Thursday, were among a string of tax increases and tighter public spending in a tough budget plan. The economy is expected to shrink by 2 per cent in the recession that started during the previous quarter and is on track to last just over a year.

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