The massive sculpture, named Homage to Will, was being used as a temporary shelter.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a choice that would add to Trump's list of provocative picks whose confirmation processes will test the loyalty of Senate Republicans.

Trump on Thursday announced the selection, confirming CNN's earlier reporting, saying he was thrilled to share the pick.

"The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country," Trump said in a post on X.

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"Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!"

Kennedy, who accepted the offer Thursday, has been in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days following the election.

The move, first reported on by Politico, is a notable one given that only days before the election, Trump's transition co-chair Howard Lutnick told CNN that Kennedy was "not getting a job for HHS."

"He would not be in charge of HHS?" he was asked on "The Source with Kaitlan Collins."

"No," Lutnick said, "of course not."

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That answer set off an internal uproar in Trump's orbit, with Trump making clear to Kennedy that he would make the ultimate decisions.

Kennedy has been one of the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists for years and has frequently spread false conspiracy theories about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

He launched his own presidential bid last year – first as a Democratic challenger to President Joe Biden, then as an independent – focused largely on reversing "the chronic disease epidemic." He proposed numerous policies aimed to overhaul food safety and environmental guidelines, promote holistic medicines and restructure public funding for vaccine research.

In the final days of Kennedy's campaign, he met with Trump on multiple occasions, in which the two discussed the possibility of him endorsing Trump in exchange for a role in his administration. Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Trump that same day.

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In October, Trump teased Kennedy would oversee a public health portfolio while speaking at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, telling the audience he would let Kennedy "go wild on health," "go wild on the food" and "go wild on medicines" if reelected.

Since Election Day, Kennedy has pledged to take major steps to reshape the nation's public health guidelines. Last week, Kennedy he would "immediately" begin studying vaccine safety and efficacy but promised to not "take vaccines away from anybody."

He also committed to formally recommending states and municipalities remove fluoride from public water.

Kennedy has also floated significant employee turnover at public health agencies. He said in an interview with MSNBC that he would cut workers in "the nutrition departments" at the US Food and Drug Administration.

While speaking at a conference in Arizona on Saturday, Kennedy proposed replacing 600 officials at the National Institutes of Health with hand-picked staff.

In an interview with NPR News following the election, Kennedy laid out his areas of focus in Trump's administration.

"President Trump has given me three instructions," Kennedy said.

"He wants the corruption and the conflicts out of the regulatory agencies. He wants to return the agencies to the gold standard, empirically-based, evidence-based, science and medicine that they were once famous for. And he wants to end the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts on a diminishment of chronic disease within two years."

Israel's military ground operation in southern Lebanon has been expanded, the country's Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Katz did not clarify when the decision to expand operations was taken and did not offer any details on what the expansion entails.

Israel launched what it described as a "limited ground operation" to expel Hezbollah from southern Lebanon early last month.

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"We have expanded the ground manoeuvre in southern Lebanon and we are operating against Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh district in Beirut and wherever necessary," Katz told soldiers on Wednesday during his first visit to Israel's Northern Command.

There were nearly 20 Israeli airstrikes against what the Israeli military described as Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The newly appointed defence minister maintained that Israel will not agree to "any ceasefires."

"We will not take our foot off the pedal," Katz said, adding that Israel will not "agree to any deal that does not ensure the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal across the Litani River – and especially Israel's right to enforce … and act against any terrorist activity and organisation."

The Litani river is about 20km from Israel's northern border.

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Despite the Israeli ground operation into southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has maintained a daily barrage of rockets against parts of northern Israel and continues to launch drones against Israeli cities.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 50 projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel on Wednesday.

Hezbollah on Wednesday said it had carried out at least 20 attacks against Israel and its troops in Lebanon with drones, missiles, and rockets, saying its actions were "in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip … and in defence of Lebanon and its people."

Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Wednesday praised the militant group's fighters for their support in a handwritten letter published online.

The letter comes after the group's members expressed support over the weekend for his leadership. Qassem was named the group's new leader in late October, a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike.

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Growing toll on civilians

Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians. Airstrikes on several towns across Lebanon have killed at least 20 children since Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

In the town of Joun in southern Lebanon, at least eight children were killed on Tuesday, the ministry said. A separate attack on Tuesday killed at two children in Baalchmay, southeast of Beirut.

On Wednesday, an Israeli attack in the village of Dawhet Aramoun, south of Beirut, left three children dead. On Sunday, an Israeli strike in the village of Aalmat, north of Beirut, left seven children dead.

The Israeli military told CNN on Thursday that it has been "operating to defend Israel's northern border, striking military targets in order to counter the continuing threat Hezbollah poses to Israeli homes and families," since cross-border hostilities escalated on October 8, 2023.

"Hezbollah has continued to escalate its attacks against Israel, firing over 16,000 rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, killing civilians and displacing tens of thousands from their homes," the IDF said, adding that it makes "great efforts to estimate and consider potential civilian collateral damage."

The number of children killed in Lebanon over the past 50 days now accounts for 80 per cent of all children killed in the past year, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said Wednesday in a post on X.

"Children in Lebanon are enduring the deadliest phase of this war," he added.

As of Tuesday, at least 2683 people had been killed and 12,144 injured in Lebanon since mid-September when Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah, according to a CNN tally of health ministry figures. The health ministry numbers do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Katz's announcement about expanding Israel's ground operation also comes as the military confirmed the death of six Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. This marks one of the deadliest days for Israeli troops in Lebanon since the start of the ground incursion on October 1.

The deadliest day so far was on October 2, when eight soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.

Those killed on Wednesday were all from the Golani brigade – regarded as an elite infantry unit – and included a platoon commander, a squad commander, a squad sergeant, and three soldiers, the IDF said.

At least 41 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel's ground incursion on October 1, according to a CNN tally of the IDF figures. At least 792 Israeli soldiers have been killed, including 373 killed inside the Gaza Strip, since Hamas's deadly attacks on the country on October 7, 2023, according to the IDF.

Several hundred people are believed to remain in an illegal mine in South Africa after the government cut off vital supplies and refused to help them, in a dramatic bid to crack down on the industry.

Food and water supplies to those underground have been halted by police seeking to force the illegal miners to come to the surface, according to Reuters.

Ilegal miners can travel up to 4km underground and spend months below ground in old mines, according to a report by South Africa's Minerals Commission. But without supplies, conditions are believed to be deteriorating underground.

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One decomposed body was brought to the surface on Thursday, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said Thursday, who added that pathologists were at the mine in Stilfontein.

Family members gathered near the mining site Thursday afternoon, telling Agence France-Presse they were worried about relatives who were still underground.

"We are here for our brothers and sisters, and my husband is here, he has been eight months underground," Ntomboxolo Qwanti told the AFP.

Reports vary as to how many miners were in the abandoned gold mine in the North West province. North West police spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone told the Associated Press that three miners who had come to the surface indicated that up to 4000 miners could be underground. Other police reports said the number in the mine was in the hundreds.

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'We are going to smoke them out'

Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said on Wednesday that no help would be given to the illegal miners.

"We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out," she said.

Speaking to state media, Mametlwe Sebei, who heads the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa, criticised Ntshavheni's comments, warning that that approach "is almost criminalising the entire 4000 people – many of whom are just poor desperate people."

The illegal industry often takes place in "horrific conditions" and under the control of organised crime syndicates, Sebei said.

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According to Mathe, the police spokesperson, at least 1172 illegal miners have so far surfaced voluntarily amid the pressure campaign.

Mathe also said that locals are organizing a community-led rescue attempt to extract the remaining miners, but would be required to indemnify the police first.

"Community members are stepping in and demanding to go and rescue these illegal miners themselves. We are making them sign indemnity forms as a way of exempting us. We have taken them through the dangers and consequences of doing so," she said.

Police have been escalating attempts to stamp out the activity of illegal miners, known locally as "zama zamas." More than a billion dollars is lost to illegal mining in South Africa annually, according to the country's Minerals Council.

The blackmarket trade in gold has also fueled violent turf wars, according to a parliamentary brief, as the nation grapples with one of the world's highest murder rates.

Police and defence officials are due to visit the scene on Friday. A police statement said the intention was to "reinforce the government's commitment to bringing this operation to a safe and lawful conclusion."

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Boxing legend Mike Tyson is going up against Jake Paul, a popular YouTuber turned pro-fighter, this Saturday.

It may be an unlikely matchup, but it's proving to be one of the most anticipated boxing events of the year.

Here's everything you need to know about the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight.

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What time is the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight in Australia?

It's not exactly known when Paul and Tyson will fight, as there are several fights scheduled before the main event.

The whole event is likely to last several hours, with the start of the card beginning at 12pm AEDT on Saturday.

There are six fights on the card before Paul vs. Tyson.

It's estimated the Paul vs Tyson fight could start about 3pm, but it depends on how long the previous fights go for.

How to watch the fight in Australia?

Viewers in Australia can tune in on Netflix at 12pm AEDT.

Anyone with a subscription can watch on Netflix in Australia.

Viewers do not need to pay for an extra pay-per-view.

Where is the fight?

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson are fighting near Dallas at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, USA.

The stadium is the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, and claims to be the largest domed structure in the world.

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Do I have to pay extra to watch the fight on Netflix?

No, you don't have to pay extra to watch Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson on Netflix.

Anyone with a subscription can watch on Netflix in Australia without paying more.

Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight card

These are the fights on the card for Saturday:

• Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson

• Katie Taylor  vs. Amanda Serrano for the lightweight titles

• Mario Barrios vs. Abel Ramos for the WBC welterweight title

• Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes

• Shadasia Green vs. Melinda Watpoo

• Lucas Bahdi vs. Corey Marksman

Have Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fought before?

The two fighters have not faced each other in the ring.

They had been due to fight earlier this year, but it was postponed after Tyson developed an ulcer.

Their biggest confrontation to date was in the pre-match press conference.

The bout between Paul and Tyson has been criticized due to the 31-year age difference between the two fighters.

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How long have Tyson and Paul been boxing?

Mike Tyson competed between 1985 and 2005 and is set to come back to the ring after almost 20 years off.

Tyson has a career record of 50 wins to six losses, with 44 knockout wins.

Jake Paul debuted in world boxing in 2020.

Paul has a record of 10 wins and one loss.

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A group of New Zealand MPs broke into a spirited haka in the country's parliament this week, interrupting a vote on a controversial bill in spectacular fashion.

The Treaty Principles Bill, brought by ACT leader David Seymour, seeks to impose a new interpretation of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (also known as Te Tiriti), a treaty between Māori chiefs and the British crown that is considered one of the founding documents of New Zealand.

Advocates for the new bill claim it offers equality to all New Zealand citizens and will remove "privileged" treatment for Māori, while opponents say the bill is either too simplistic, or that it further entrenches social barriers and prejudice that Māori face.

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The debate over the bill in parliament erupted yesterday afternoon when Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke ripped up a copy of the Treaty Principles Bill, and MPs and the public stood to perform the haka Ka Mate.

She was joined by opposition MPs and members of the public gallery, bringing parliament to a halt.

It was "grossly disorderly", the Speaker of Parliament, Gerry Brownlee later said. He took the very rare step of "naming" Maipi-Clarke and calling for the House to judge her conduct.

The coalition parties – National, ACT and NZ First – voted with the Speaker to suspend Maipi-Clarke. That meant she was unable to vote against the bill.

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Brownlee ordered security clear the public gallery, and he briefly suspended parliament as a result of the haka.

Alongside Maipi-Clarke, Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi went face-to-face with David Seymour, whose bill it is, as they performed the Ngāti Toa haka.

When it came time for the Treaty Principles Bill to be voted on, the same parties voted in favour. Their support would send the bill to a select committee, which was expected to take six months to consider it.

Labour Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson called that "a six month hate tour".

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Jackson was then kicked out of the House himself, after refusing to apologise to Seymour for calling the associate justice minister a "liar".

Jackson said he had a "message" for Seymour, given to him by people who were at the hīkoi mō te Tiriti in Auckland.

"To you, David Seymour: you fuel hatred and misinformation in this country, you bring out the worst in New Zealanders, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you are a liar," Jackson said in Parliament.

He then refused to withdraw his comment. "I can't do that," he told Brownlee, adding: "That's a message from the hīkoi." He was then booted from the House.

Seymour was under pressure through the debate and was the only MP to speak in favour of the bill. Coalition partners from National and NZ First said they did not like the bill, but would keep to the coalition agreement and support it at first reading.

He argued the bill would give "tino rangatiratanga" (broadly, sovereignty or self-determination) to everyone.

He rejected criticism that he was stirring racial division.

"That is not true. My mission is to empower every person," Seymour replied.

Speaking after the debate, he said the Opposition and coalition MPs had not raised any strong argument against the bill.

"I heard all sorts of name-calling, I heard hysteria, I saw haka, but I didn't hear any arguments," he said.

He said he had never before seen a Speaker eject the entire public gallery, during his decade as an MP.

Long-serving MPs, who have been in Parliament for decades, couldn't recall a moment like this. They called it an "unprecedented" day for the House.

"We respect their right to have debate according to the rules of Parliament. They have to reciprocate. Otherwise it doesn't work," Seymour said.

"The idea that some people have a greater right to obstruct other people's right to be represented. That's a lot about what this bill is about, the idea that we should each have equal rights."

Tensions between ACT and Te Pāti Māori were at boiling point.

During the debate, Ngarewa-Packer and ACT's Nicole McKee were shouting at each other across the aisle. At one point, Seymour pulled McKee back – urging her to step away from the argument.

During Waititi's speech, he compared the ACT Party to the Ku Klux Klan.

He said Parliament had no right to redefine the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, arguing that it derived its power from Te Tiriti.

"This Parliament means nothing in Aotearoa without Te Tiriti o Waitangi," he said.

He said only the signatories of the Treaty, being the monarch and the rangatira of hapū of Aotearoa, had the power to change Te Tiriti.

So he asked, "Tell me David Seymour, which one of those are you?"

He told coalition MPs they were "complicit in harm" which he said would be caused by the Treaty Principles Bill. That bill, he said, was "euthanising Te Tiriti o Waitangi".

Given National said it did not support the bill, Waititi said: "ACT are seen to be pulling the strings and running the country like the KKK."

Green co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said the bill was designed to oppress Māori.

"When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. That is what is behind this bill," she said.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke against the bill. Holding a press conference with reporters before departing New Zealand, he called the bill "divisive" and said it was a distraction.

He said the bill over-simplified a complex issue.

"You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic," he said.

The Treaty Principles Bill was expected to return to the debating chamber in the first half of next year.

This article, which has been slightly modified with context for Australian readers, originally appeared on Stuff, and is republished here with permission. The unaltered original can be read here.

Former South Australian Liberal leader David Speirs is set to appear in an Adelaide court for the first time since he was arrested and charged with supplying drugs.

Speirs, 39, has been embroiled in controversy since he quit the leadership on August 8, declaring that he had "just had a gutful" of leadership speculation and did not have the energy to keep fighting.

On September 9, News Corp published a video purportedly showing Speirs snorting a powder.

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He declared the footage to be a "deepfake" and vowed to clear his name.

Two days later, he took medical leave, saying the past few days had been "exceptionally distressing" and that he has been left "feeling exceptionally vulnerable and at risk".

On October 5, Speirs released a video statement saying he did not believe he could "adequately and effectively serve my local community while also dealing with this matter, protecting my mental health and supporting my family and friends".

"Since allegations of illicit substance use in my home became public, my home has been raided by armed police, I was arrested and I was questioned," he said.

Police confirmed Speirs was arrested at Berri, in South Australia's Riverland, on September 26 and charged with two counts of supplying a controlled substance from August 2 to August 3 and on August 9.

He was granted bail and will face Christies Beach Magistrates Court, in Adelaide's southern suburbs, today.

Speirs resigned from parliament on October 15, clearing the way for a by-election in his southern Adelaide seat tomorrow.

Phillip Pembroke never met his father, who he is named after. 

He was just a tiny foetus in his mother's belly on the night his dad vanished 43 years ago.

It was August 9, 1981 and Phillip Pembroke senior was flying back to Sydney's Bankstown Airport from the Whitsundays in a small Cessna plane with three mates and pilot Michael Hutchins.

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Somewhere, over the vast and dense Barrington Tops National Park north of Sydney, Hutchins lost control of the plane.

"We're up and down like a yo-yo," Hutchins was heard saying in a panicked radio call, before all contact was suddenly cut off.

No trace of the wreckage has ever been found, making it the only aircraft to remain unrecovered on the Australian mainland post World War II.

Pembroke grew up hearing stories about his dad, a former solicitor who became a nursing home proprietor before his death.

"He was a bit of a larrikin. He loved hanging out with his mates and really enjoyed being on the water and around boats," he said.

"He was just the life of the party and I really wish I'd met him."

In the days and weeks that followed the crash, large-scale searches involving helicopters and hundreds of volunteers scoured the park's dense bushland. It was a forbidding task.

There have been many searches for the Cessna VH-MDX since then. 

Every year, NSW Police and the SES use searches for the lost plane as a training exercise and the original 80km search zone is gradually expanded.

Amateur aviation sleuths have also conducted their own expeditions in a bid to solve the mystery. 

Pembroke himself has taken part in a few of those searches and has been confronted with the difficulties posed by the almost impenetrable bushland firsthand.

"The Lantana and the terrain is like nothing else I've seen in my life," he said. 

"You look around and you can't even see a foot in front of you. It's just so thick and dense, you could almost walk past the wreckage and not know."

Avid outdoorsman Darren Taylor, who has made searching for the VH-MDX a dedicated hobby over the years, was on one of those treks with Pembroke, along with New Zealand aviation expert Gavin Grimmer.

Taylor said he was moved by the sight of Pembroke searching for his father so many decades on.

"It's been a bit of a personal ambition of mine, to help find this plane for the sake of these five families," Taylor said.

"There's quite a few of us who are out there, still trying, but we need more help and we need some money to make this thing happen realistically." 

It was with this in mind that Taylor lodged a parliamentary petition earlier this month, calling on the Federal Government to step in and help with the search efforts for the VH-MDX.

Taylor said different technologies had been developed in the decades since the crash which could be used to help locate the wreckage, including LiDAR imaging.

LiDAR, which stands for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technique that measures distances and creates three-dimensional maps of an environment using laser beams.

While LIDAR maps of the Barrington Tops area were already publicly available, more modern equipment could be used to hone in on the forest floor, Taylor said.

"Unfortunately, the area wasn't LiDAR mapped to look for a plane. It was just LiDAR mapped to get the general topography of the country."

The petition calls on the government to investigate resources available to the Royal Australian Air Force or the Australian Defence Force which may be able to assist with the search.

Pembroke said he had signed the petition and hoped the government would lend its support.

"With the technology that's available to us in 2024, I think we could certainly put a more concerted effort into finding these men who left and never came home," he said.

"I think it deserves another crack, and it would be good to bring them home one day." 

Pembroke said his mother Yvonne, who is now aged in her 70s, never re-partnered or had any more children after the crash. 

"She never really got over this incident, because she always clung on to hope that while the plane hasn't been found, that he'd still be alive. 

"She just found it very hard to move on." 

Merrilea Kleins, whose father Ken Price was also on board the Cessna, said the government needed to step in and help "put the mystery to bed".

"It's ridiculous. Even with the difficulty of the location, it seems implausible in this day and age that it's still missing," Kleins said.

"We can go to the moon, we can go down to the bottom of the ocean to find the Titan but we can't find a bloody plane in a forest."

 "I don't think the plane will ever be found unless the Federal Government steps in.

"Something's got to change in order for it to happen."

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau closed their investigation into the VH-MDX more than 40 years ago in September 1983.

The Department of Transport declined to comment on the petition.

Australia has voted to recognise Palestinians' "permanent sovereignty" over their natural resources in a significant foreign policy shift that breaks with the US and Israel.

Votes in favour of two United Nations draft resolutions on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) are the latest in a series of more pro-Palestinian votes Australia has taken at the global body, angering local pro-Israel groups but draw praise from Palestinian advocates.

The draft resolution in the UN's Second Committee recognised the "permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources".

The resolution passed with 159 votes in favour and seven against – including the US, Canada and Israel, with 11 abstentions.

The vote breaks a 20-year streak of Australia voting no or abstaining on the issue, according to the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. 

Canberra last abstained on the issue in November last year, a month after Hamas launched its October 7 attacks, killing 1200 people, mostly civilians, and dragged some 250 into Gaza as hostages and sparking Israel's war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of 43,000 Palestians, according to the local health authority, and spread into neighbouring countries.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the vote reflected international concern for Israel's actions, including its "ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians".

"We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and prospects for a two-state solution," they said.

"This resolution importantly recalls UN security council resolutions that reaffirm the importance of a two-state solution that has had bipartisan support."

Before the vote, Israel's representative to the committee decried the resolution as "rooted in biased political motives".

"Tragically every resource meant to benefit the Palestinians has been co-opted for Hamas war machinery," he said. 

The Palestinian representative on the committee said the vote was a strong reaffirmation "of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self determination and freedom".

"It also sends a strong message that all the atrocities Israel is committing in the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as the measures and policies that is carrying out across the rest of occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and must be halted, and that the occupying power must be held accountable without delay," she said, after the vote.

US political adviser to the UN Nicholas Koval said his country was disappointed the committee criticised the resolution as "unbalanced" and "unfairly critical of Israel, demonstrating a clear and persistent institutional bias".

"One-sided resolutions will not help advance peace. Not when they ignore the facts on the ground," he said.

"One-sided resolutions are purely rhetorical documents that seek to divide us at a time when we should be coming together. And one we must not cling to longstanding lines of division."

Locally, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network welcomed what it called Australia's "long-overdue recognition of Palestinians' inalienable rights".

"Australia's support marks an acknowledgment of the catastrophic impact of Israel's relentless appropriation and destruction of Palestinian resources and sends a clear signal that the world is demanding accountability for these injustices," APAN president Nasser Mashni said, in a statement.

"This vote should be a turning point for the Australian government – it must recognise and act upon its legal obligation to use all economic, political and diplomatic tools at its disposal to help end Israel's genocide, illegal occupation, and apartheid in Palestine."

But the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said it was deeply concerned by votes that made "no sense, either in terms of the objectives of the resolutions, or Australia's historical voting record".

"All Australian governments have voted no on the oil slick resolution since it was introduced in 2006, including, until now, the Albanese Government," executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said. 

"This is because the resolution does nothing to build momentum toward peace, is completely decontextualised and ignores the substantial environmental destruction caused by Hezbollah in Israel during the 2006 war."

Australia also voted in favour of a resolution calling for Israel to assume responsibility for an oil slick caused by the Israeli Air Force's destruction of oil storage tanks near a Lebanese power plant, which Australia voted against in 2023.

Votes on both resolutions will now go to the UN's General Assembly.

Australia earlier this year voted with the vast majority of the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution to grant "rights and privileges" to Palestine and a separate vote calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Older drivers should be coming forward to test their own skills to make Australian roads safer, research shows.

A new website launched by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and neuroscience institute NeuRA aims to help drivers aged in their 50s and above stay safe and remain on the roads longer.

Cognitive aging expert and UNSW professor Kaarin Anstey told 9news.com.au later-in-life driving lessons were crucial as our population grows and ages.

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"We obviously want people to stay on the road as long as it's safe for them to do so. And that's the issue: they have to be safe on the road," Anstey explained.

"That's the point of the website, to empower older drivers, family members and health professionals.

"We've been working on this issue of older drivers for over 20 years because the second biggest cause of injury in older adults is motor vehicle accidents or crashes (after falls)."

Road safety has been front of mind after a series of devastating crashes across Australia, including a crash in Victoria's Riddells Creek which killed teacher's aide Eleanor Bryant and one in Melbourne's Hawthorn East which killed 11–year-old Jack Davey.

Anstey said her accompanying research The Better Drive Study looked at if older drivers were less likely to cause road accidents or put themselves in harm if they had a refresher course. 

It followed motorists aged over 65 over 12 months to see if driving improved.

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"A lot of people got their licence in an era where the cars were different, the roads were different, the road rules were different," she said.

"We just feel there's a certain amount of improvement that probably all of us, not just the older age group but lots of people, could benefit in refreshing their driving skills."

Anstey's pilot study found older people were likely to develop bad habits such as not checking blind spots or not keeping up to date with key road rules.

She said people who did the driving lessons had a "big improvement" in their safety on the road.

Later-in-life lessons could also identify if a person should be looking at giving up their licence.

"Sometimes there's people who we find who are not very safe drivers, or who have an impairment that they may not have been aware of," Anstey added.

9News asked several older drivers in Victoria if they supported the idea of lessons.

"I think it's a good idea, there are some older people who definitely need a refresher but there are some that are still quite good," one woman said.

"I'd rather not go through those grills but I guess for everyone's safety it's a very good thing," another added.

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The website Aging Well on the Road, launched this week, has information and advice for older drivers.

It also helps people navigate the different rules and regulations across states.

The rules to asses drivers' abilities are different all over the country.

In Victoria, drivers must self-report medical conditions while in NSW drivers must undergo annual medical assessments from a GP and practical driving tests over the age of 85.

"People don't naturally ask themselves 'do I need to update my driving skills'," Anstey said.

"The website is really designed for the general public.

"The medical fitness to drive manual from Austroads provides guidance to health practitioners about the requirements for driving medical conditions [too]."

Results from the Better Drive Study are set to be released in 2025.

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