TRANSCRIPT
- Authorities in Germany say four suspected members of Hamas are among seven people arrested over alleged attack plots
- European leaders agree to allow EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova
- A pollster say Peter Dutton is Australia's least trusted politician
Authorities in Germany say four suspected members of Hamas are among seven people arrested over alleged attack plans.
Police arrested three people in Germany, three in Denmark and one in the Netherlands
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the threat was "as serious as it gets".
Prosecutors say those arrested planned to attack Jewish sites in Europe.
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European leaders in Brussels have agreed to allow EU membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the decision "a victory" for his country and Europe.
The European Council says the agreement was unanimous.
Hungary has opposed talks starting with Ukraine but did not veto the move.
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Australia's Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has hailed the outcome of the COP28 summit in Dubai as significant progress.
The final text calls for a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.
It’s the first time the world has expressed a collective desire to eventually end the age of coal, oil and gas.
However, several climate activists have voiced their opposition to the agreement, pointing out that it contains too many half-measures and loopholes.
But Mr Bowen has told the summit that it will signal the end of the fossil fuel era.
"The outcome does not go as far as many of us asked for, stating with the most vulnerable countries, but the message it sends is clear. That all nations in the world have acknowledged the reality that our future is in clean energy and the age of fossil fuels will end."
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Australia is set to expand its role in training recruits from Ukraine.
Defence Minister Richard Marles has announced the Australian Defence Force members deployed to a UK-based training program will rise from approximately 70 to 90 people per rotation over the next year.
Australia's role will extend to a junior leadership training program for various military skills.
Mr Marles says the people who are currently fighting in the streets of Ukraine did not have previous military training before the start of the war.
"Right now, the Ukrainian armed forces are very much a civilian army. And I was able to see people who had literally come off the street. Some who had been a clerk, a building worker, a truck driver and who had been turned into soldiers, in circumstances where they were about to fight in a conflict which is today looking a lot more like World War One than World War Two."
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Four government ministers in Japan have quit over a fundraising scandal where more than $5.2 million dollars [[500 million yen]] is alleged to have ended up in slush funds.
Tokyo prosecutors have launched a corruption probe.
A survey in Japan has found support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party [[LDP]] has fallen below 30 per cent for the first time since 2012.
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Peter Dutton has pipped a former prime minister and a mining magnate to take out the title of Australia's least trusted politician.
The federal opposition leader heads pollster Roy Morgan's 2023 distrust list, ahead of former prime minister Scott Morrison, who secretly appointed himself to five ministerial positions.
The pollster noted billionaire Clive Palmer would be Australia's third most distrusted politician but for the fact he's retired from politics.
