World News

Photo: AFP / RICHARD A. BROOKS The online gaming provider PlayStation Network is suffering a global outage. All services have been impacted since 2.21pm, according to the PlayStation Network status page, including account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Video and PlayStation Store. The outage means people are not able to sign in or create an account for the PlayStation Network, launch games, apps or network features, get PlayStation Video content or buy products in the PlayStation Store. Photo: Supplied PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and online platforms are affected. One PlayStation user RNZ spoke to said all game and store pages loaded blank and his console appeared unable to connect to the server. The PlayStation Network said it was wor...

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in one of Beirut’s southern suburbs early on 1 October, 2024. Photo: AFP Israel's widely expected ground invasion of Lebanon appears to be getting under way as its military says troops had begun 'limited' raids against Hezbollah targets in the border area. The military said in a statement that its targets were located in villages close to the border that posed "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel." It said the air force and artillery were supporting ground forces with "precise strikes." Local residents in the Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab reported heavy shelling and the sound of helicopters and drones overhead. Israel told the US it planned to launch a ground incursion into L...

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighborhood in one of Beirut’s southern suburbs early on 1 October, 2024. Photo: AFP Lebanese have troops have pulled back from the border with Israel as a ground invasion by Israel looks imminent. Israeli strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs, a security source said, with a Reuters reporter witnessing a flash of light and a series of loud blasts about an hour after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate areas near buildings it said contained Hezbollah infrastructure south of the Lebanese capital. Israel has told the US it plans to launch a ground incursion into Lebanon, multiple reports from the US say. And a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters the positioning of Israeli troops sugges...

Men on a four wheeler pass a storm damaged house along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, North Carolina. Photo: SEAN RAYFORD/Getty Images via AFP More than 100 people are dead and millions without power in the southeastern United States, following Hurricane Helene. Homes were destroyed and many people were still missing as the search, and cleanup, continues. Here are some images of what unfolded: Boats piled up in front of homes after Hurricane Helene hit Treasure Island, Florida. Photo: JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP Bo Hester assesses damages to his house after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Horseshoe Beach, Florida. Photo: AFP/ Chandan Khanna Storm damaged cars sit along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurric...

By Jamie Tram, ABC Brad Pitt and George Clooney in 'Wolfs'. Photo: Supplied / Apple TV+ Review - It's been 16 years since Burn After Reading, the last time George Clooney and Brad Pitt were glimpsed together on-screen - and even then, without spoiling, they only shared the briefest of unfortunate encounters. In fact, despite being two of the biggest actors of their generation, they haven't appeared in another movie together outside of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy, an unrivalled feat of virtuosic cool and effortless ingenuity that defined their movie star personas. So it's something of a big deal that Clooney and Pitt have been re-united in Wolfs, the latest Apple TV+ original film, with director Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) at the helm. It's the kind of event that you'd...

By Marco Bello and Maria Alejandra Cardona, Reuters Storm damaged cars sit along Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Old Fort, North Carolina. Photo: SEAN RAYFORD/Getty Images via AFP Emergency responders in North Carolina were racing overnight to try to reach people who remain unaccounted for three days after Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States, killing more than 100 people, wiping out communications and leaving millions without power. In mountainous, hard-hit Bumcombe County, which includes the city of Asheville, 35 people have died, the county sheriff said at a news briefing on Monday. The county will begin distributing food and water later in the day to residents, after some supplies were airlifted to the region that has been largely isol...

By Andrew Goudsward, Reuters Ryan Routh has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges, including attempted assassination. Photo: AFPTV / AFP The man charged with attempting to assassinate Donald Trump after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle outside one of the former president's Florida golf courses on 15 September pleaded not guilty to five federal charges. Ryan Routh, 58, entered the plea to charges that include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate during a hearing in federal court. He has already been ordered to remain in jail to await a trial. Prosecutors have said Routh intended to kill Trump as he golfed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Routh, a struggling roofing contractor, condemned the Republican presidential candidate in a ...

By Jake Evans, ABC political reporter Photo: Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto Tinder, Hinge and other online dating platforms will have six months to become compliant with a dating code of conduct designed to make the matchmaker apps safer, after years of reported failures to act on incidences of sexual assaults enabled by their platforms. A 2022 Australian Institute of Criminology study found three in four people it surveyed had been subjected to sexual violence facilitated by dating apps in the prior five years. From Tuesday, the online dating code will begin requiring dating apps to have systems to detect potential incidents of "online-enabled" harm and take action against users who violate a company's online safety policies. Apps must also display prominent and transparent complaint an...

A smoke plume erupts after an Israeli airstrike targeted the outskirts of the village of Ibl al-Saqi in southern Lebanon. Photo: RABIH DAHER/AFP The United States has observed positioning of Israeli troops that suggests a ground incursion into Lebanon could be imminent, a US official has told Reuters. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to offer further details on the posture of Israeli forces and declined further comment. Earlier, Israel warned Iran that nowhere in the Middle East was beyond its reach and hinted at a land invasion of Lebanon after assassinating the leader of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group, one of its biggest adversaries, in a Beirut suburb last week. "There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," Prime Minist...

By Alyssa Pointer, Maria Alejandra Cardona and Octavio Jones for Reuters Bo Hester assessing damages to his house after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, on 28 September, 2024. Photo: AFP/ Chandan Khanna Cleanup and recovery efforts under way from Florida to Virginia Damage estimated from $15 billion to over $100b. The Southeastern US begun a huge cleanup and recovery effort, and the death toll climbed towards 100 people after Hurricane Helene knocked out power for millions, destroyed roads and bridges and caused dramatic flooding from Florida to Virginia. The storm's winds, rain and storm surge killed at least 90 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of state and local officials. O...