World News

By Jake Evans for the ABC (File photo) Photo: NIKOLAS KOKOVLIS / AFP Facebook has admitted that it scrapes the public photos, posts and other data of Australian adult users to train its AI models and provides no opt-out option, even though it allows people in the European Union to refuse consent. Meta's global privacy director Melinda Claybaugh was pressed at an inquiry as to whether the social media giant was hoovering up the data of all Australians in order to build its generative artificial intelligence tools, and initially rejected that claim. Labor senator Tony Sheldon asked whether Meta had used Australian posts from as far back as 2007 to feed its AI products, to which Claybaugh responded "we have not done that". Read more: But that was quickly challenged by Greens senator Da...

By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries, Reuters Photo: CFOTO / NurPhoto via AFP An EU court order that Apple pay Ireland 13 billion euros (NZD$23.2 billion) in back taxes triggered mixed feelings in Dublin on Tuesday as the government assessed possible reputational damage and rebuffed opposition calls for the cash to be spent quickly. Ireland had fought the EU back-tax bill alongside Apple since 2016, seeking to defend its position as the location of choice for US multinationals in Europe - and the billions of euros in direct and indirect taxes they bring in each year. The government played down the finding by the Court of Justice of the European Union that it granted the iPhone maker unlawful aid through its tax treatment as an issue "of historical relevance only" due to changes in ...

Australian breakdancer Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn ranked world No1. Photo: ODD ANDERSEN Australia's infamous Olympic breakdancer Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn has been ranked number 1 in the latest Breaking World Ranking List. The B-girl whose performance at the Paris Olympics went viral for all the wrong reasons, left the Games without a single point. The backlash she's faced since Paris led Australia's chef de mission to speak out in her defence. And now Gunn has been ranked number one in the world by the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF). In a statement, the Federation said it "acknowledges the recent inquiries" regarding the world rankings. "We would like to take this opportunity to provide clarity on the ranking methodology and address the concerns raised. "The WDSF remains steadfast in its ...

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump are facing off in their first televised debate of the US presidential campaign this afternoon. The debate - at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center and will not have a live audience - is due to start at 1pm NZT (9pm local time). For Harris, the square-off in Philadelphia is an opportunity to lay out her priorities and show her mettle against a rival who has belittled her intelligence and subjected her to racist and sexist attacks. Trump will get a chance to try and blunt some of Harris' momentum in a race that has tightened considerably since she became the Democratic nominee in July. Most opinion polls show Harris to be slightly ahead nationally and in the majority of battleground states, but Trump remains well within striking dist...

By Danielle Broadway, Reuters Photo: Image Press Agency / NurPhoto via AFP A Michigan inmate who accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a party almost 30 years ago has been awarded a USD$100 million (NZD$162m) judgment against the rapper and record producer. Derrick Lee Smith, 51, won the multimillion-dollar judgment by default in Lenawee County Circuit Court during a virtual hearing on Monday after Combs, 54, failed to show up. An attorney for Combs said the rapper would move to have the judgment dismissed. "This man (Smith) is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years," attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement. "His resume now includes committing a fraud on the...

Dave Grohl of rock band Foo Fighters performs at Roskilde Festival in Denmark Photo: AFP Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has admitted he has become a father to a baby girl outside of his marriage. In a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Grohl, 55, said: "I've recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of my marriage. "I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. "I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness." He did not share any other details about the baby or the mother of the child. Grohl met his wife Jordyn Blum in 2001 and they married two years later. The couple have three daughters together, Violet, 18, Harper, 15, and Ophelia, 10. Before tying the knot with Blum, a TV produc...

Conor McGregor Photo: INPHO/Tom Hogan UFC boss Dana White anticipates Conor McGregor will return to the Octagon in "early 2025". McGregor has not fought since suffering a broken leg in a July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. The 36-year-old Irishman had to pull out of a fight with Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June due to a broken toe. McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, had been campaigning to fight at UFC 310 in Las Vegas in December. Speaking to the New York Post ahead of Saturday's "Noche UFC" event, White confirmed that McGregor will not make his comeback before the end of this year. "Let me tell you this, I was the one this year saying I don't think he's going to fight this year, amid all the talk and everything else," White said. "Conor McGreg...

By Joshua McElwee, Reuters After mass, Pope Francis visited a school for children with disabilities in Dili, Timor Leste. Photo: VATICAN MEDIA/Hans Lucas via AFP An estimated 600,000 people in Timor Leste, just under half its population, turned out in the baking heat for a mass with Pope Francis at a coastal park synonymous with the country's long struggle for independence from Indonesia. Filling a wide, dusty area where Indonesian forces buried slain Timorese independence fighters, people arrived as early as 1am and sat on the ground, many braving the sun for hours in temperatures as high as 32 degrees Celsius. Many sheltered under umbrellas decorated in the white and yellow colours of the Vatican flag, while others carried signs asking for blessings and sang local melodies, in one ...

Damaged buildings and debris after Typhoon Yagi hit Ha Long, in Vietnam. Photo: AFP/ Nhac Nguyen By Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen, Reuters The death toll in Vietnam from Asia's worst storm this year reached 127 on Tuesday, with torrents of rain triggering floods and landslides, burying homes, sweeping away a bridge and now threatening the capital Hanoi. In several northern provinces, including the suburbs of Hanoi, residents waded through knee-high floods. Brown water cascaded down pedestrian steps. Landslides and floods triggered by the typhoon have killed at least 127 people in northern Vietnam and 54 others were missing, the disaster management agency said on Tuesday in its latest update on the situation. Most of the victims were killed in landslides and flash floods, the agency said, a...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of Israeli strikes on a makeshift displacement camp in Mawasi Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip on 10 September. Photo: BASHAR TALEB Israeli missiles have set ablaze a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, killing or wounding 65 people, the enclave's civil emergency service says, in what the Israeli military called a strike on a Hamas command centre. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office put the number of fatalities at more than 40. It said that at least 60 others were wounded in the strikes and many remained missing as rescue workers continued their searches early on Tuesday, local time. Residents and medics said the tent encampment near Khan Younis in the Al-Mawasi area, which Israel has d...