The government has broken an election promise by introducing changes to the capital gains tax and negative gearing.

The centrepiece race of the US midterm elections has rapidly turned nasty, with one of the most senior staffers of the White House getting in a profane spat with Democrats online.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posted a photo on X of Democratic candidate James Talarico with an inaccurate caption.

"The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate," Miller wrote.

READ MORE: Congressman hasn't been seen for 12 weeks, won't say why

Talarico is not transgender and has never claimed to be.

But the official account of the Democratic Party was not diplomatic in their response.

"Shut up you ugly f—," the account said.

Miller's wife Katie hit back by posting a photo of the woman who runs the Democrats' official X account.

"She's 30, unmarried with no kids," Mrs Miller said.

"This is what a sad, unhappy, female Liberal looks like. It's why Pew reports 50% of them have been diagnosed with a mental condition."

A follow-up post from Stephen Miller showed Talarico eating a turkey leg with the caption: "He's transitioning".

Republicans, including Donald Trump, have falsely accused Talarico of being a vegan.

Earlier today Trump posted a side-by-side image of Talarico and MAD magazine character Alfred E Neuman.

"This Weak on Crime, Open Borders Dumocrat, can never be allowed to represent the Great People of Texas," Trump wrote.

"His 'values' are the exact opposite!!!"

READ MORE: Trump's handpicked candidate may cost his party their most important state

The attacks on Talarico reflect increasing nervousness among Republicans that he may be the first Democrat since 1992 to be elected to the Senate from Texas.

Talarico has been tied or ahead of Republican candidate Ken Paxton in every poll of the race taken since January.

One poll released earlier this week showed the Democrat seven points ahead of Paxton.

Despite his conservative credentials in a conservative state, Paxton is uncommonly unpopular for a Republican in Texas.

This is in large part because of a series of scandals the politician has faced.

As Texas attorney-general, his own staff reported him to the FBI with bribery and corruption accusations.

Paxton then fired the whistleblowers.

He was impeached by the state House of Representatives but kept his job after a vote to remove him failed by a single vote in the Texas Senate.

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In 2015, he was arrested while attorney-general and charged with security fraud, paying a $A400,000 fine and doing 200 hours of community service in a deal with prosecutors.

He was also caught on CCTV pocketing another lawyer's $A1400 pen when it had been left behind at a metal detector.

His wife Angela filed for divorce last year on "biblical grounds", alleging adultery. 

He is also facing criticism after his office made a plea deal with a lawyer accused of abusing a child.

Adam Hoffman was facing a life sentence, but instead made a deal with Paxton's office to see him serve just 60 days behind bars.

He was released after 30 days last week.

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One of Australia's worst paedophiles, childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith, has launched a bid to slash the life sentence he received for abusing dozens of young children.

Lawyers for the notorious predator today argued in the Queensland Court of Appeal that the 27‑year non‑parole period he was handed in 2024 was "manifestly excessive" as they sought leave to appeal.

Griffith is behind bars after a horrifying history of abuse stretching almost two decades was exposed.

READ MORE: 'ISIS bride' charged with terrorism offences

He pleaded guilty to 307 child sex offences against 65 victims aged between one and nine.

It included 28 counts of rape against girls, mainly aged three to five, at Queensland childcare centres between 2007 and 2022.

Griffith used his trusted role to prey on toddlers and preschoolers as they slept or by taking them into isolated corners of childcare centres, often while their parents believed they were safe in his care.

In court, his legal team claimed the sentencing judge went too far, insisting the case could have been dealt with by a fixed term of 25 to 30 years with a much shorter non‑parole period.

Barrister Sarah Cartledge conceded Griffith's crimes were "truly awful" and that he had preyed upon "the most vulnerable" while in a position of trust.

The appeal is tightly focused on the parole eligibility date, with the defence arguing that while a life sentence was open, the minimum term effectively imposed a harsher punishment than in similar cases of extreme child sex offending.

Cartledge said Griffith had co‑operated fully and openly since his arrest, giving around 18 hours of interviews.

"This was not a case where the court had to drag the truth from him at trial," she said.

"His extensive co‑operation and guilty plea saved an enormous amount of court time and spared child complainants from giving evidence.

"The co‑operation here went well beyond what this court usually sees … he didn't just admit the allegations put to him — he volunteered further instances of abuse and helped police piece together who some of the children were."

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Justice John Bond, presiding on the appeal panel, suggested it was more accurate to view the sentence as a judicial determination that Griffith should serve no less than 27 years.

He pressed counsel on the broader impact of his offending, suggesting the harm extended well beyond his victims.

"These crimes do not end with the children and their families," Justice Bond said.

"They corrode trust in childcare institutions, they wound the people who worked alongside this man, and they burden those who had to investigate and respond to his offending.

"The harm accumulated over nearly 20 years must factor into the sentence."

Throughout two decades of preying on children, Griffith filmed all but one of his victims, building a vast cache of abuse he shared online.

When detectives raided his Gold Coast home in 2022, they seized more than 4000 child abuse images and videos documenting much of his offending.

Prosecutors, led by Ruth O'Gorman KC for the Director of Public Prosecutions, urged the court to reject the appeal, saying the sentence barely reflected the scale and cruelty of the crimes.

"When you weigh the gravity of this offending, the number of victims and the deliberate way it was carried out over nearly 20 years, it cannot seriously be said that this sentence is excessive," O'Gorman submitted.

"It is a strong sentence, but it is a justified one."

She said psychiatric evidence showed Griffith would pose a danger of reoffending if released too soon.

Griffith is also wanted in NSW, where he is the subject of an arrest warrant over alleged child sexual offences during his time working there between 2014 and 2018.

The case prompted a wide‑ranging review of Queensland's childcare system, which found repeated red flags and warning signs were raised but ignored.

The appeal court has reserved its decision.

Support is available by calling 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028, Lifeline 13 11 14 and Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25.

A repatriated 'ISIS bride' has been charged with two terrorism offences in Melbourne after arriving in Australia last year, federal police have confirmed.

The 34-year-old woman, who returned from Syria in September 2025, was arrested at a home in Broadmeadows in Melbourne's north today and has been charged with entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and one count of being a member of a terrorist organisation.

It is alleged by police that the woman travelled to Syria with others, including a man, between 2013 and 2014 to join ISIS, before she was detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held in al-Hawl Internally Displaced Persons camp with family members.

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The charged woman returned to Australia from Lebanon with another woman on September 26, 2025.

The man she is believed to have travelled to Syria with may be incarcerated in a Middle East prison, police said.

She will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court today.

Both charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Police made the arrest after conducting search warrants at two homes in Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North.

Officers seized a suspected stolen car, electronic devices, documents and photographs.

AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said police are also investigating the 36-year-old woman who arrived from Lebanon in Australia.

Four so-called ISIS brides have been charged with domestic offences over the past month.

Sirec said the long period between the charged woman's arrival in Australia and her arrest is "not an indicator that investigations have ceased".

"I will confirm investigations are continuing in all recent adult female returnees who spent time in internally displaced person camps in Syria," she said.

"All the women who have returned recently are under investigation."

Two cohorts of women and their children have arrived in Sydney and Melbourne in May after leaving Al-Roj refugee camp in Syria.

It is unclear at this stage which cohort the woman who has been charged today arrived with.

The second group included four women and their children, who arrived at Sydney Airport just after 5.30pm on Tuesday, having left the Al-Roj camp late last week and travelled via Damascus.

Another group of two women and their children arrived at Melbourne Airport about 4.30pm.

Counter-terrorism police searched the groups' belongings and downloaded information from their devices "for investigative purposes" but no arrests were made at the airport.

"No one arriving within this cohort has been charged, however, investigations into the activities of Australians who travelled to Syria, including those who have since returned, are ongoing," the NSW and Victoria Joint Counter Terrorism Teams said in a statement at the time.

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"Police and the JCTTs will continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to ensure community safety is upheld.

"The safety of our communities remains a priority for all agencies."

Domestic charges were laid against three Islamic State-linked brides who landed in Australia earlier this month.

Operation Kurrajong is the name given to the joint counter-terrorism investigation, which handles the return or potential return of Australians who travelled to the Middle East during the ISIS caliphate.

Dozens of ISIS fighters and their brides have returned to Australia since 2013.

Australia repatriated two other groups of women and children who were living in the Al Roj camp in 2019 and 2022.

Government plans have been in place since 2014 to manage the returning citizens.

Nearly 500,000 Russian troops have been killed since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine four years ago, according to a UK spy chief.

Details on the number of Russian casualties were revealed by Anne Keast-Butler, the director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters.

In her first public speech, Keast-Butler said new intelligence pointed to half a million deaths, which proved Russian President Vladimir Putin was "going backwards on the battlefield". 

READ MORE: Putin's fears of coup ramp up amid Russia's backslide in Ukraine

The figure is equivalent to the number of people living in the Australian Capital Territory.

The spy chief also accused Russian security services of being behind espionage plots in multiple countries.

"One example is in the grey zone between peace and war… where Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe, stretching from the seabed to cyberspace – relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust," Keast-Butler said.

The Russian government denies it is involved in conducting espionage against the UK and European countries.

Ukraine and Russia have regularly released estimates of the opposing side's losses, but have been reluctant to put figures on their own.

READ MORE: Russia uses hypersonic Oreshnik missile in mass attack on Kyiv

On February 24, 2022, Russian troops, under the direction of Putin, launched a "special military operation" against their neighbour Ukraine, expecting a swift victory.

But advances by the Russian army, which was hampered by poor logistical supplies and cumbersome command structures, quickly slowed.

The invaders met stubborn resistance from the Ukrainian armed forces which were aided by shipments of advanced weapons from their Western allies.

Putin's hopes for speedy battlefield success and the removal of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy melted away as the conflict became a bloody war of attrition.

GCHQ is the UK's electronic and cyber intelligence agency. It works alongside the domestic security service MI5 and the foreign intelligence agency MI6.

Keast-Butler, the first woman to head the agency, delivered the GCHQ director's annual lecture speech at the agency's World War II headquarters of Bletchley Park.

It is a famed manor north-west of London where hundreds of mathematicians, cryptographers, crossword puzzlers, chess masters and other experts worked to crack Nazi Germany's supposedly unbreakable secret codes.

Australians would not be able to fly into the most popular entry points to the US under a plan proposed by the Trump administration.

A proposal from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin would stop "sanctuary cities" from being able to host international airports.

A "sanctuary city" is a place where local law enforcement does not hand over undocumented migrants to federal authorities for deportation.

READ MORE: Congressman hasn't been seen for 12 weeks, won't say why

"Why are we processing international flights into the airport there?" Mullin told Fox News.

"We're currently drawing up plans to say, listen, these sanctuary cities where the local radical-left Democrats aren't allowing us to do our jobs and enforce federal laws, then we shouldn't be processing international flights into their cities either.

"Because they don't want us to enforce immigration, but they want us to process immigration at their facilities."

Such a policy would be a major inconvenience for Australians travelling to the United States.

Los Angeles and San Francisco are both considered sanctuary cities.

Most Australians flying to the US land in either of those California cities.

The only current direct route to the US mainland from Australia is to Dallas, which would not be affected.

READ MORE: Trump's handpicked candidate may cost his party their most important state

But the flight is two hours longer than Los Angeles and only flies from Sydney.

Which means if an Australian family wanted to go to Disneyland, they would need to fly 16 hours from Sydney to Dallas, then double back to Los Angeles on a three-hour flight.

Alternatively, they would have to do a stopover in Hawaii.

Direct routes to New York and Boston from Auckland would also be blocked under this policy.

The other Australian flight to North America, Sydney to Vancouver, would not be a viable stopover alternative because flights from Canada to the US would also be affected.

"Cutting off New York, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and other major ports of entry/departure from international flights would be the biggest self-inflicted wound to our economy since closing the Strait of Hormuz," US economist Patrick Chovanec said.

"The costs would be ridiculous.

"It's really such an impressively stupid idea, I'm kind of in awe."

Other sanctuary cities include Seattle, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

READ MORE: Jill Biden thought Joe Biden was having a stroke during debate

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A Tesla driver has been caught seemingly asleep behind the wheel while driving on one of Sydney's busiest motorways.

The video, shared on Instagram, appears to show the man with his eyes closed and leaning back in his seat. His hands are not on the wheel of his white Tesla.

A geolocation tag on the post suggests the man is driving on the M2 Motorway, a major roadway that travels from Sydney's north-west towards the North Shore and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

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The post was captioned with "arvo snooze", in a reference to the driver appearing to be asleep despite being in the driver's seat of the car.

After a few seconds, the man, who is wearing a seatbelt, opens his eyes and puts his hands on the steering wheel, waving a hand towards the person filming him, potentially looking to signal he is alert and awake.

The man was most likely using Tesla's Autopilot mode, which can allow the driver to use cruise control to maintain the speed of the car while also holding a safe distance between other cars on the road.

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It also offers an autosteer setting, where the car maintains a set speed if there is no car in front, and automatically detects lane markings, road edges and the presence of other objects on the road to keep the car in its lane.

Tesla's official website states users must still be fully attentive while engaged in Autopilot mode.

It says that if the car detects the driver not paying enough attention, they will be locked out of autopilot mode.

Some Tesla models also have a fully self-driving mode, however, the use of fully self-driving cars is currently not legal in Australia.

Joe Biden's wife feared he was having a stroke during his disastrous presidential debate with Donald Trump in 2024.

Speaking to CBS, Jill Biden spoke of her fear while watching his performance.

"I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," she said.

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"As I watched it, I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's having a stroke.' And it scared me to death."

The former First Lady made the remarks in an interview that is set to air in full later this week.

During the debate, Joe Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought, gave confusing or nonsensical answers and was unusually belligerent with Trump when it came to his golfing prowess.

It triggered calls for Biden to drop out of the race.

But in the immediate aftermath of the debate, Mrs Biden was publicly supportive.

"You did such a great job, you answered every question," she said at an event with her husband afterwards.

The oldest president in history at the time, Biden was already facing questions about his coherence and vitality.

READ MORE: Trump says he's in 'perfect' health after medical check-up

The unprecedented withdrawal from a re-election campaign came after he had secured the nomination after a series of largely uncontested primaries.

"It was a mistake for the president to stay in the race as long as he did," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said today.

"We would've been better off as a party had he gotten out much sooner."

Former Obama administration staffer Tommy Vietor thought likewise.

"I think this is how most voters felt while watching that debate, and why it was obvious that Biden had to drop out of the race," he said.

"The impression left by Biden's performance was unfixable, and pretending otherwise was insulting to voters."

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was rushed into the nomination without a primary process, has blamed her election loss on her shorter-than-usual campaign.

READ MORE: Trump's handpicked candidate may cost his party their most important state

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A heavily pregnant nursery owner has chased down a thief at her Adelaide business, stopping him from stealing plants worth hundreds of dollars.

Footage shows the thief yesterday pushing a trolley full of plants from Exotic Botanic in the city's north-east into a carpark.

Moments later, the owner who is nine months pregnant, runs after him.

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She managed to regain the trolley and pushed it back to the store.

The nursery later took to social media to explain what happened and appeal for thieves to stop.

"Please don't let me chase you while I'm nine months pregnant," the owner said.

"And, oh, please don't steal hundreds of dollars' worth of plants from us."

Police say they have not received any reports from the incident.

A man has been charged with murder after allegedly killing a man and assaulting two others south-west of Bundaberg in a series of alleged violent attacks.

The rampage took place over about eight minutes in the small town of Childers, leaving an elderly man dead after he was allegedly brutally bashed with a metal pole.

This allegedly happened after a 36-year-old man, driving a Subaru Liberty, deliberately crashed into a Mitsubishi Pajero.

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When the Pajero driver got out of his car after the collision, it is alleged that the offender reversed into him, before punching the other man multiple times in the face.

After this, the 36-year-old drove onto Whietbridge Road in North Isis, where he confronted a 78-year-old man, allegedly punching him in the head before hitting him with a metal pole.

The North Isis man suffered critical injuries and died at the scene.

The Subaru driver then allegedly drove to Crescent Street in Childers, where he allegedly assaulted a 66-year-old man.

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Earlier, the alleged offender from Bundaberg West was allegedly involved in a car crash on the Bruce Highway at Glenorchy, where he allegedly deliberately reversed into a Tesla, before verbally abusing the driver of the Tesla.

None of the victims are believed to be known to the man.

Members of the public then restrained the man, allowing police to arrest him.

He has been charged with one count each of murder, attempt to murder, acts intended to maim, disfigure or disable, dangerous operation of a vehicle and evasion.

He will appear at Gladstone Magistrates Court via video link today.