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By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem for Reuters Medics on Saturday administered polio vaccines on children at Nasser Hospital in a symbolic move before the official campaign begins. Photo: Jihad Al-Sharafi / AFP Israeli strikes have killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health authorities said, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign. The United Nations is due to start vaccinating some 640,000 children in the territory against polio, relying on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in specific areas of the besieged enclave. Yousef Abu Al-Reesh, Gaza's deputy minister of health, said vaccination teams would try to get to as many areas as...

Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP A manslaughter investigation into the sinking of a superyacht that killed seven people will take months if not longer, a New Zealand maritime lawyer says. Italian prosecutors are investigating the captain of the Bayesian, New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, along with two crew members for the crimes of manslaughter and shipwreck after the sinking off the coast of Sicily. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow. The owner of the Bayesian, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and six other people on board were killed when the British-flagged yacht capsized on 19 August during a storm. While an investigation had begun, Oceanlaw New Zealand partner Karyn van Wijngaarden warned it would not be a short process. Italian Carab...

By Josh Robertson, ABC Hong Kong's powerful Cheng family led by Cheng Yu Tung forged connections with former US President Donald Trump when he faced financial ruin. Photo: AFP / File Hong Kong's powerful Cheng family have wanted a piece of the Australian casino industry for nearly 40 years. Now, through their family-controlled conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, they hold a billion-dollar-plus stake in the Star Brisbane, Australia's most expensive casino venture. It was this quest for an Australian casino that thrust the Chengs into an unwitting role in something more significant: the rise of Donald Trump. An unlikely partnership between the self-promoting New York tycoon and the publicity-shy Hong Kong billionaires was forged decades ago in bids to build casinos in north Queensl...

Elon Musk. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/ AFP By Lisandra Paraguassu, Luana Maria Benedito and Ricardo Brito, Reuters Brazil's telecommunications regulator said on Friday local time it was proceeding to suspend access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country in compliance with an order from a judge who has been locked in a months-long feud with the billionaire investor. The move followed the expiry of a court-imposed deadline for the popular social media platform to name a legal representative in Brazil. Musk has argued that Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes is trying to enforce unjustified censorship, while the judge has insisted that social media needs hate speech regulations. "They're shutting down the #1 source of truth in Brazil," Musk said in a post on X on Friday. They’...

American musician Bill Callahan Photo: Supplied For Bill Callahan, it's "a version of hell" to play songs the same way every time. The beloved American musician tells Music 101's Charlotte Ryan about the thrill of improvising on his new live album Resuscitate!, the "little sparks" which become songs and why he's planning to explore not songwriting later this year. This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Improvised music can sometimes get a little tiring "because there's not always a ground to stand on", Callahan says, but for him, that looseness is also part of its appeal. "I like that unstructured and floating and confused feeling that a lot of like free jazz gives me but I also wanted to combine that with a ghostly, overarching structure so that it was someho...

TV star Matthew Perry died in October 2023 from an overdose. Photo: Gabriel BOUYS / AFP One of two doctors who are among the five people charged in the ketamine overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry was barred by a federal judge on Friday local time from practising medicine and through his lawyer afterward expressed remorse. Dr. Mark Chavez appeared in US District Court in Los Angeles for a brief arraignment on a single felony count of conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine and was permitted to remain free on US$50,000 bond. Chavez has previously signed an agreement with federal prosecutors to enter a guilty plea, which defence lawyer Matt Binninger told reporters his client would do at a later proceeding to be scheduled within a few weeks. No plea was entered on Friday. As ...