Two more people arrested over alleged Sydney kidnapping and murder of Chris Baghsarian

• Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary in a 54-45 Senate vote, replacing fired Kristi Noem to oversee mass immigration raids and deportations. • Republican Rand Paul voted against Mullin, calling him a 'freaking snake' during hearings, while Democrats John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich crossed lines to support him. • Confirmation occurs as DHS partial shutdown risks extending into April amid staffing shortages, with ICE agents deployed to airports to ease security lines.

• President Donald Trump stated the US is negotiating with Iran to end the three-week-old war, citing two days of 'very good and productive conversations' after Iran reportedly reached out, with talks set to continue this week. • Trump refused to name the 'top' Iranian official involved, only saying it was not new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, and claimed he would 'jointly control' the Strait of Hormuz with 'whoever the next Ayatollah is'. • US and Israeli airstrikes continued across Iran, targeting Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan, Karaj, gas facilities, and a pipeline, with Iran reporting over 1,500 civilian deaths since February 28.

New Mexico hails ‘historic’ win after jury finds firm misled consumers over safety and enabled harm against usersA New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users.This is the first bench trial to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform. Continue reading...

Nathan Newby set to receive George Medal for stopping a potential atrocity with an act of kindnessA hospital patient who managed to talk a man out of detonating a bomb in a maternity wing said the would-be attacker “asked for a cuddle” before standing down.Nathan Newby, who stopped an atrocity through an act of kindness, spoke publicly for the first time about his encounter with Mohammad Farooq before receiving the George Medal for bravery. Continue reading...

Nearly a thousand pounds of steak went into the meaty effort, and TSA agents, unpaid for weeks, ate the resultsPhiladelphia has set a world record for the “Longest Line of Cheesesteaks”, with 1,200ft of the city’s iconic sandwich stretching across the B/C connectors at the Philadelphia international airport (PHL).The airport achieved the record on Tuesday with help from more than 100 employees and volunteers, who assembled foot-long rolls using 990lbs of Philly’s Best Steak and 225lbs of cheese sauce. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the full line took about an hour to complete. Continue reading...

The impact of the war in the Middle East is likely to reshape the global economy for years – is this the moment for Australia to change the way it thinks about energy? Post your questions now for our climate and environment editor Sign up here to ask a questionThe US-Israel war on Iran has cause a surge in fossil fuel prices – again. A similar thing happened after Russia invaded Ukraine. Then it was gas, now it’s petrol and diesel.The war has triggered a fuel crisis, and led to a surge in people considering buying electric cars. Meanwhile, a recent report found Australian federal and state government will pay or forgo A$16.3bn in fossil fuel subsidies this financial year. Continue reading...

Survey puts Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco ahead with Democratic vote split between large field of candidatesRepublicans continue to lead the California governor’s race amid a crowded field of Democrats, a new poll commissioned by the state’s Democratic party found, fueling concerns of a conservative win in the famously liberal state.The party on Tuesday published the results of a large-scale poll of 2,000 likely voters conducted by Evitarus Research that revealed that 16% of participants would back the conservative political commentator Steve Hilton in the upcoming primary, while 14% would support Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff. Continue reading...

NSW police allege the boy ‘held a mixed ideology and outlined plans for acts of violence’A 16-year-old boy has been charged with multiple terrorism offences after he allegedly posted threats of extremist violence online.Police initially arrested and charged the boy with weapons offences in December after the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team received reports of someone making violent threats online, the Australian Federal Police said in a statement on Wednesday morning. Continue reading...

Tania Warner says she has documents showing she is in the US legally, but immigration agents were not swayedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA Canadian woman who has been imprisoned with her seven-year-old daughter by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has cautioned other immigrants that they are at risk of detention, even if they follow the correct legal process – and warned them to keep out of sight for as long as Donald Trump is president.“Don’t go anywhere near a checkpoint, and if your papers are in processing, just lay low. Trump meant what he said – he is trying to get rid of everyone, whether they are good or bad,” said Tania Warner, 47, who is currently held with her autistic daughter, Ayla, at the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas. Continue reading...

Police understood to have record of Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff reporting phone stolen in OctoberPolice were “too busy” to investigate the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s phone despite the potential sensitivity of his messages and contacts, according to reports.Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff told the Metropolitan police that his phone was stolen in central London when he was returning home from a restaurant on 20 October last year, the Times reported. Continue reading...

Minister tells security conference many people could have been killed in Invasion Day incident; Treasury working ‘full tilt’ on budget measures. Follow updates liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastRadicalisation now more likely to come ‘across a browser’ than a border, home affairs minister saysTony Burke says it would be “reckless” and “ignorance in the extreme” for Australia to pretend that immigration is the solution to preventing violent extremism on our shores.It would be ignorance in the extreme for us to pretend that that is the fix. It would be reckless in the extreme for us to pretend that immigration is the solution. It is something that is one of our tools, but the only way we deliver national security is to deal with facts and risks as they present themselves, not as you might want them to be.Where we once only had to look at radicalisation potentially being something that might come across our border, it now comes across a browser. Where radicalisation used to involve – that you might have to go to a training camp in Afghanistan – it now comes to you in an algorithm.The Australia Day arrest in Perth, for a number of reasons, it didn’t receive the publicity that it really should have. But can I just say – we got so lucky. We got so lucky.This was not a stunt. The person who threw the pipe bomb into the middle of a crowd of First Nations protesters believed that – if you look at what it was – this was something where there was a reasonable expectation it would have gone off, and the number of people who then would have been killed. The fact that that didn’t happen is not through any planning. We just got lucky. Continue reading...