Melbourne's Lord Mayor Nick Reece has joined the growing backlash against a planned protest which prompted Myer to cancel its traditional Christmas window opening reveal in Melbourne on Sunday.

Pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists on social media urged people to join them at a protest to "interrupt" the display reveal.

"Myer would like us to 'share the joy' this Christmas, but there is no joy in genocide," the original post by the protest organisers read.

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"Christmas is cancelled, and there will be no joy or frivolity while children in Gaza are massacred."

In a statement, Myer confirmed the Sunday event had been cancelled.

"In light of recent developments and to ensure the wellbeing and safety of customers and team members, we will no longer hold an event on Bourke Street Mall for the unveiling of our Christmas windows," a spokesperson said.

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"Myer's Christmas windows have long symbolised joy and community, and we remain committed to providing a safe and positive experience for all visitors."

Speaking to 3AW, Reece said he thought the planned protest was an "outrage".

"It's stupid, and it won't help the cause that these protesters are trying to advance," he said.

"(The windows) been going for over 70 years. It's part of the magic of childhood in Melbourne, going along to see the windows."

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State Premier Jacinta Allan, on X, fired a broadside earlier at the protesters earlier this morning, saying "we are all a bit sick of this stuff".

"Blocking the Christmas windows won't change a thing in the Middle East, but it will let down a bunch of kids in Melbourne. Who does that help?" she wrote.

"People have a right to demonstrate, no one has a right to divide.

"We cannot let ugly protests ruin a beautiful Christmas tradition, and we cannot let violence, division and vilification ruin what makes Victoria great."

https://twitter.com/JacintaAllanMP/status/1857161305993666914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Allan said the ongoing war in the Middle East had "tested" Victoria.

"We must come out of it united, not divided," she said.

She doubled down on her stance when speaking to the ABC, saying the protest was "not on".

"This is a really small group of people who are choosing to politicise Christmas, to politicise a beautiful event for our kids," she said.

The window display will still be open from Sunday until January 5 for people to enjoy if they choose to.

Victoria Police said they were aware of the planned protest.

"We have repeatedly requested they do not do this, however, the group is not co-operating with police," a spokesperson said.

"The Myer Christmas Windows are an important tradition in Melbourne's calendar, with families from across Victoria coming into the city to see them.

"While we always respect the right for people to protest peacefully, we are clear that this should be done without impacting the broader community."

The spokesperson said police would have a "visible presence" at the site on Sunday, and would continue to try speak with the group planning the protest.

"It is important to make clear a separate rally planned for later in the day has changed its usual route due to the Myer Christmas Windows and will not walk through Bourke Street," the spokesperson said.

In a further comment, police confirmed they had not advised Myer to cancel the event, and that they continued to work with the shopping centre to support the staging of the "much loved tradition".

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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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