Attack

Hakeem Jeffries predicts Pete Hegseth could be next as party alarmed by damage done by ‘terrible’ attorney generalTrump fires Pam Bondi, a loyalist and ally, as attorney generalUS politics live – latest updatesWith quips, memes and jabs, Democrats cheered Donald Trump’s firing of attorney general Pam Bondi on Thursday, while the president’s Republican allies praised her relatively brief tenure overseeing the justice department.Trump announced Bondi’s departure on Truth Social, saying: “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.” Her deputy Todd Blanche will take over as acting attorney general. Continue reading...

The former British foreign secretary is among 3,000 signatories, including leading members of Jewish diaspora, to open letter to Isaac HerzogThe former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind is among leading members of the Jewish diaspora urging the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to intervene to stop “attacks by Jewish extremists” on Palestinians in the West Bank.An open letter to Herzog facilitated by the London Initiative – a liberal Zionist network of 360 people, including eminent Jewish, Israeli and Israeli Palestinian figures – has attracted more than 3,000 signatories, including diplomats, philanthropists, rabbis and academics from Australia, Canada, across Europe, South Africa the UK and US. It follows a spate of killings and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinian civilians in March. Continue reading...

• NATO formally condemned coordinated Russian cyber attacks launched against critical infrastructure in three alliance member states, including Estonia, Lithuania, and Romania, on April 1-2, 2026. • The attacks targeted power grid control systems and financial networks, with NATO officials attributing the operations to Russian GRU military intelligence with "high confidence" based on forensic analysis and technical signatures. • The incident prompted emergency meetings of the NATO Cyber Defence Centre in Tallinn and triggered Article 5 threat assessment protocols, though military responses remain under deliberation among member states.

• Treasury Department imposed sanctions on April 1 against firms linked to hacks on Australian and Japanese defense networks, stealing terabytes of data. • Targets include Huawei subsidiary and two state-backed hackers, freezing $1.2 billion in US assets. • Action escalates tech war, with FBI reporting 40% rise in state-sponsored attacks on US firms.

• AI recruiting platform Mercor confirmed a cybersecurity incident from a supply chain attack on open-source project LiteLLM, with hacker group Lapsus$ claiming data access and theft. • The breach exposed Mercor's systems, highlighting vulnerabilities in AI supply chains used by startups for model integration. • This incident underscores rising risks for AI firms relying on third-party libraries, potentially impacting hiring trust and data security standards.

Ukrainian president says ceasefire could show diplomacy works, while Russia dismisses statement as ‘PR stunt’. What we know on day 1,499Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticised Russia for responding to an offer of an Easter truce with airstrikes. The Ukrainian president said on Wednesday he had spoken to US negotiators about an Easter ceasefire but Russian forces had fired more than 700 drones – many of them Iranian-designed Shaheds – targeting parts of western and central Ukraine in a rare daytime attack. Zelenskyy said: “Russia is responding [to the Easter ceasefire offer] with Shahed drones and continues its terrorist operations against our energy sector, against our infrastructure,” adding that he had discussed ways of advancing diplomacy with US negotiators. “A silence over Easter could be exactly the signal that tells everyone that diplomacy can be successful.” Russia’s foreign ministry rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal as a “PR stunt”.The Ukraine president said talks with US mediators aimed at resolving the four-year conflict were “positive”. The talks were held remotely on Wednesday with the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the US senator Lindsey Graham, with Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, also joining the call amid the alliance’s continuing tensions with Washington. Zelenskyy thanked the US for its efforts to bring about peace and said the Ukrainian and US teams had agreed to strengthen a document outlining US security guarantees for any future peace deal. “This is precisely what could pave the way for a reliable end to the war.” In recent weeks Zelenskyy said the US had been pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to bring a quick end to the conflict after the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February. Talks with Russia are deadlocked over the question of land, with Ukraine refusing to cede to Moscow’s demands that it relinquish the eastern region of Donbas.Russia claimed to have full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region on Wednesday, which Kyiv denied. Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the entire Luhansk region – part of the Donbas – but a Ukrainian military official said small areas were still held by Ukrainian forces. Russia has previously made false claims of advances. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement: “Units have completed the liberation of the Luhansk people’s republic.” But Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces, said there were no changes to report in that region. “Unfortunately, we only hold small patches [in Luhansk], but those positions have been held by 3rd brigade for a long time,” Trehubov told the Associated Press. Russian claims of progress have in the past proved to be inaccurate. The Moscow-appointed head of Luhansk announced its full capture last June. Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow makes false claims of advances to persuade US negotiators a Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable.Russia fired hundreds of drones at Ukraine, killing at least five people and destroying a postal terminal, Ukrainian officials have said. Ukraine’s Nova Poshta mailing company published an image on Wednesday of a warehouse in the western city of Lutsk in flames, with thick smoke pouring from its roof. As well firing 339 drones at Ukraine overnight, Russia launched more than 360 drones during the day, the Ukrainian air force said. One drone killed four people in the central Cherkasy region, while an earlier drone strike on a car in Ukraine’s frontline Kherson region killed a woman and badly wounded two other people, regional authorities said. Continue reading...

Jayson Joseph Michaels allegedly planned attack on police headquarters, Parliament House and mosquesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA man accused of plotting a mass casualty terror attack targeting public buildings and places of worship believed his assault would be worse than the Bondi beach mass shootings, a court has heard.Jayson Joseph Michaels detailed his alleged plan for a violent assault on Western Australia police headquarters, WA Parliament House and mosques in a diary, the Perth magistrates court was told during a failed bid for bail on Wednesday. Continue reading...