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Ukrainian servicemen of the 24th Mechanized Brigade fire a BRM1k infantry fighting vehicle towards Russian positions in Donetsk in August, 2024. Photo: AFP / Press Service of the 24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces Ukraine's army chief has warned that his forces are facing "one of the most powerful Russian offensives" since the start of the war as Russia claimed it captured more settlements on the eastern frontline. Russia has steadily been making gains in the eastern Donbas region, which Russia's President Vladimir Putin aims to capture in full. Reuters, citing open-source data, reported that Russia has been advancing at its fastest pace in at least a year. Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said the situation on the front line "remains difficult" and certain ...

By Aurélia End, AFP In an ad for Kamala Harris, a woman marks her ballot for the Democratic candidate while her husband thinks she's voting for Republican Donald Trump: "What happens in the booth, stays in the booth" a voiceover says. The 30-second-clip, narrated by actor Julia Roberts, shows the couple arriving at a polling station wearing baseball caps featuring the American flag, a symbol often sported by Trump supporters. The ad, financed by a religious nonprofit, has elicited fury in the Trump camp, with the former president calling it "stupid" and asking "Can you imagine a wife not telling her husband who she's voting for?" In the ad, the wife exchanges knowing glances with another female voter, before filling in her choice for Harris. "You can vote any way you want, and no one wil...

Quincy Jones in 2019. Photo: AFP / Arnold Turner Quincy Jones, the man known simply as "Q," was a huge influence on American music in his work with artists ranging from Count Basie to Frank Sinatra and reshaped pop music in his collaborations Michael Jackson. Jones died on Sunday at the age of 91, his publicist said. There was very little Jones did not do in a music career of more than 65 years. He was a trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, composer, producer and winner of 27 Grammy Awards. A studio workaholic and a virtuoso at handling delicate egos, he shaped recordings by jazz greats such as Miles Davis, produced Sinatra, and put together the superstar ensemble that recorded the 1985 fund-raiser 'We Are the World', the biggest hit song of its time. Jones also was a prolific writer of mov...

A female student stripped to her underwear outside her university in Iran in what some student and rights groups say was a protest against the country's strict Islamic dress code. A video circulating on social media and shared by rights group Amnesty International shows the woman sitting outside the university in her underwear and with her hair uncovered. She gestures toward her fellow students, many of whom are female and wearing headscarves, before strolling around the premises. Another video shows her walking down a road, still in a state of undress, before a group of men surround her, bundle her into a car, and drive away. Amnesty said Saturday (local time) the woman had been "violently arrested" after she protested the "abusive enforcement" of the dress code at Tehran's Islamic Azad U...

By Andrew Greene, ABC Photo: 123rf A NZ$7.7 billion (AU$7 billion) program to create an Australian military-grade satellite communications system has been cancelled, with Australia's prime minister insisting the government is busy "prioritising" all defence purchases. Eighteen months ago, US defence giant Lockheed Martin was selected to deliver a hardened network of three to five satellites to provide high-level protection against cyber and electronic warfare attacks in what would have been Australia's largest-ever defence space contract. The project - known as JP9102 - was expected to include locally controlled and operated geostationary communications satellites, as well as multiple ground stations, but on Monday the Department of Defence confirmed it no longer met "strategic priori...

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted just before midnight on Sunday local time. File photo. Photo: AFP At least nine people have died after Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in eastern Indonesia erupted, spewing explosive plumes of lava and forcing authorities to evacuate several nearby villages. Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki - located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province - erupted on Sunday at 11.57pm local time, belching a fiery-red column of lava, volcanic ash and incandescent rocks, said Hadi Wijaya, a spokesperson for The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. "After the eruption, there was power outage and then it was raining and big lightning which caused panic among residents," he told Reuters, adding that the authority had raised the status of the volcano to level IV ...

Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia say comments from a comedian at a Trump rally last week labelling their homeland island as "garbage" have energised members of the community to get out and vote. And that could spell bad news for Donald Trump, as the battleground swing state of Pennsylvania has a massive Puerto Rican population of close to 500,000 people. Puerto Rico is a US territory, not a state, but Pureto Ricans who live in the US are citizens and can vote in the election. At a suburban carpark 20 minutes from downtown Philadelphia, members of the local Puerto Rican community have come together to show pride in their homeland, their music and their flag. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's description of Puerto Rico as "garbage" are still very much in the minds of those here, like political activ...

Tau'ili'ili is travelling to Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Solomon Islands to research various musical instruments. Photo: Supplied / Tauiliili Alpha Maiava Samoan-born New Zealand writer, director, and composer Tau'ili'ili Alpha Maiava is on a journey to seven Pacific Islands to understand the origins of musical instruments that once flourished, and those that have become obsolete. He is travelling to Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, and the Solomon Islands to research various musical instruments, including the conch shell, nose flute, pan pipe, lali, pāte, stamping tube, mouth harp, and mouth pipes, and the events that have influenced their current status. "When people envision the South Pacific, images of swaying palm trees, pristine...