US President Donald Trump will use his highly anticipated address to Congress, expected in coming hours, to announce that he has secured a minerals deal with Ukraine.

Trump told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress in Washington on Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEDT), sources told the Reuters agency.

The deal was put on hold after last week's White House blow-up between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump.

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But on Tuesday the Ukrainian leader said the row with Trump was "regrettable", adding that he stood ready to work under Trump's "strong leadership" to get a lasting peace.

US officials have in recent days spoken to officials in Kyiv about signing the minerals deal despite Friday's blow-up, and urged Zelenskyy's advisers to convince the Ukrainian president to apologise openly to Trump, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Zelenskyy's remarks — an apparent attempt to placate Trump — came in a social media post on X on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEDT), hours after the White House announced a pause on military aid to Ukraine that is critical to fighting Russia's invasion.

He also said Ukraine was ready to sign a lucrative deal on rare-earth minerals and security with Washington.

In an apparent reference to Trump's criticism following the contentious White House meeting on Friday that Zelensky does not want a peace deal, the Ukrainian leader said: "None of us want an endless war."

"Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts," he said.

The meeting "did not go the way it was supposed to be", Zelenskyy said. 

"It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right," he said.

"We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive."

The US decision to pause military aid catapulted his country into alarm and apprehension. Zelenskyy's statement came before Trump was expected to address the US Congress later Tuesday.

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"Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format," Zelenskyy said. 

"We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to the Ukrainian leader on Tuesday and "welcomed President Zelenskyy's steadfast commitment to securing peace".

Zelenskyy's post came as officials in Kyiv said they were grateful for vital US help in the war and wanted to keep working with Washington. 

Ukraine's prime minister, though, said the country still wants security guarantees to be part of any peace deal and won't recognise Russian occupation of any Ukrainian land. Those are potential stumbling blocks for Washington and Moscow, respectively.

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Ukraine and its allies are concerned Trump is pushing for a quick ceasefire that will favour Russia, which Kyiv says cannot be trusted to honour truces.

A White House official said the US was "pausing and reviewing" its aid to "ensure that it is contributing to a solution".

The order will remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.

The pause in US aid isn't expected to have an immediate impact on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces have slowed Russian advances along the roughly 1000-kilometre front line, especially in the fiercely contested Donetsk region some 700 kilometres east of Kyiv. The Russian onslaught has been costly in troops and armour but hasn't brought a strategically significant breakthrough for the Kremlin.

Ukraine needs help to fight Russia

Ukraine, which depends heavily on foreign help to hold back Russia's full-scale invasion that began on February 24, 2022, has feared that aid could be stopped since Trump took office.

US-made Patriot air defence missile systems, for example, are a pivotal part of protecting Ukraine. Just as vital is US intelligence assistance, which has allowed Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.

"I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump's side," said a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a daring military incursion in August 2024 to improve its hand in negotiations. The soldier spoke by phone to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

On the front line, where Ukraine is struggling to fend off the much larger and better-equipped Russian army, another soldier said the US decision would allow further battlefield gains for Moscow.

"War is very pragmatic," he told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with military regulations. 

"If we have weapons, enough ammunition, infantry, armored vehicles and aviation — great. If not, then we're done," he said.

He recalled a seven-month delay in US aid that ended in April 2024 but opened a door for the Russian capture of the strategically important city of Avdiivka.

Olena Fedorova, 46, of the southern port city of Odesa, said she hoped Trump's decision would be temporary because "we really need help".

US support is vital because Europe cannot fully provide what Ukraine needs in air defence systems, said lawmaker Yehor Chernov. 

"As a result, this will lead to an increase in the number of casualties among civilians," he said.

The US suspension of military aid is already being felt at a hub in eastern Poland that has been used to ferry Western weapons into neighbouring Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

The US-Ukraine relationship has taken a downturn since Trump took office and his team launched bilateral talks with Russia.

Trump had vowed during his campaign to settle the war in 24 hours, but later changed that time frame and voiced hope that peace could be negotiated in six months.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said US help is "vital" and has saved "perhaps tens of thousands" of civilian and military lives. But he emphasized that any peace agreement must be "on Ukraine's terms, as the victim country".

Ukraine wants "concrete security guarantees" from Washington, European countries and Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, he said. Giving up territory to Russia, which occupies nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine, "is not possible" under the UN Charter, he said.

European allies stress support for Kyiv

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Washington's decision could act as a spur to a peace agreement.

"The US has been the chief supplier in this war so far," Peskov said.

"If the US suspends these supplies, it will make the best contribution to peace."

Poland's Foreign Ministry said the US had not consulted with or informed NATO countries before announcing the pause.

Russia will likely try to use the halt in supplies to extend its territorial gains and strengthen its position in prospective peace talks.

Russia's state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who chairs the defence committee in the lower house of parliament, as saying Ukraine would exhaust its current ammunition reserves within months. 

"We need to keep up the pressure and continue to target their bases and depots with long-range precision weapons to destroy the stockpiles," he said.

Ukraine's European allies, meanwhile, reaffirmed their commitment to Kyiv.

The chief of the European Union's executive proposed an €800 billion ($1.29 trillion) plan to bolster defences of EU nations and provide Ukraine with military muscle.

The British government, which has been leading European efforts to keep Trump from pushing to end the war on terms that could favor Moscow, said it remains "absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine".

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defence think tank, said Washington's move could encourage Russia to ask for more Ukrainian concessions, including demilitarisation and neutrality.

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Vice President JD Vance has struck a nerve with key allies in the UK and France after arguing that a US-Ukraine critical minerals deal is a more practical deterrent against Russian President Vladimir Putin than a peacekeeping force for postwar Ukraine that includes “some random country.”

Vance, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity aired Monday evening, said the economic pact with Kyiv sought by President Donald Trump “is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”

The Trump administration has been making the case that tightening US-Ukraine economic ties through an agreement that gives the US access to valuable mineral deposits in Ukraine will give Russia pause about taking malign action against Ukraine in the future.

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The Republican vice president did not mention any particular country in his skeptical comments about a potential peacekeeping mission. But the “random country” comment was seen by some lawmakers and government officials in the UK and France as a slight that discounted both countries' partnership with the US military in conflict zones over the past 25 years.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are leading the call for a post-conflict peacekeeping force in Ukraine to prevent Russia from invading again if Moscow and Kyiv reach a truce to put a stop to Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022.

French troops deployed to Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. And British troops have served alongside American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and in a U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told broadcaster GB News that “JD Vance is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.”

“For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro rata our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in, and we suffered the same losses," Farage added. “We stood by America all through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution. And, all right, they may be six times bigger, but we did our bit.”

Vance on Tuesday took to social media to try to head off the criticism by noting that he didn't name any countries in the TV interview. He also applauded Britain and France for fighting "bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.”

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Later, during an appearance on Capitol Hill, Vance underscored to reporters that “the British and the French have offered to step up in a big way.”

French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, in France’s parliament, noted the move by Vance. "Thankfully, the American vice president corrected his comments,” Lecornu said.

But in London, Liberal Democrat defence spokeswoman Helen Maguire, a former Royal Military Police officer who served in Iraq, called for the UK ambassador in Washington to ask Vance to apologise.

“JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said. “I saw firsthand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality."

Patrick Bury, a former British Army officer and warfare expert at the University of Bath, said Vance’s comments had caused pain to veterans.

“We sweat and bled with you guys in Iraq and Afghanistan, and previous to that,” said Bury, who served in Afghanistan. “He’s caused a lot of hurt there.”

Vance's comments came in an interview recorded hours before a White House official confirmed on Monday evening that Trump had directed a pause of US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia.

Trump remains frustrated with Zelenskyy. He again criticised the Ukrainian leader on Monday after Zelenskyy said that reaching an agreement with Russia to end the conflict likely “is still very, very far away.”

Trump administration and Ukrainian officials, during Zelenskyy’s White House visit last week, had been expected to sign off on the critical minerals deal, intended in part to pay back the US for aid it has sent Kyiv since the start of the war.

But that plan was scrapped as the visit was ended abruptly after Trump and Vance had a heated exchange with Zelenskyy during Oval Office talks at the start of the visit.

Ukraine is believed to have deposits of strategically important minerals — including titanium. lithium and manganese — that could be useful for American aerospace, electric vehicle and medical manufacturing.

“The president knows that, look, if you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the Fox interview.

Trump hasn't given up all hope of reaching an agreement. And the White House has billed such a pact as a way to tighten US-Ukrainian relations in the long term.

Trump on Monday called the proposal “a great deal” for the US and Ukraine and signaled that he would speak to it during his Tuesday address before a joint session of Congress.

Starmer said "a mineral deal is not enough on its own” to ensure Ukraine's security. The British prime minister has no illusions about US troops taking part in a potential peacekeeping mission.

Starmer, who met with Trump last week, and others are trying to make the case to Trump that the plan can only work with a US backstop for European forces on the ground — through US aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case of breaches of a truce.

At least three lawmakers have been injured, one of them seriously, in chaotic scenes in Serbia's parliament, during which smoke bombs and flares were thrown.

Lawmakers were scheduled to vote on a law that would increase funding for university education, but opposition parties insisted the session was illegal and should first confirm the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and his government.

The Parliamentary chaos started about an hour after the session started on Tuesday with the opposition blowing whistles and holding up a banner reading "Serbia has risen so the regime would fall!"

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Video footage from the assembly hall showed a clash first between lawmakers and later flares and smoke bombs being thrown.

Serbian media said eggs and water bottles were also thrown.

Officials later said three people were injured in the disturbance.

Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic accused the opposition of being a "terrorist gang".

She said one of the injured lawmakers was in a serious condition.

The incident reflects a deep political crisis in the Balkan country where months-long anti-corruption protests have rattled a populist government.

Vucevic resigned the post in January as authorities faced protests over the collapse in November of a concrete canopy in the Serbia's north that killed 15 people and which critics blamed on rampant corruption.

Parliament must confirm the prime minister's resignation for it to take effect.

Opposition parties have insisted that the government has no authority to pass new laws.

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A multimillionaire homeowner who attracted criticism for constructing a large retaining wall on a Melbourne foreshore without a permit is considering selling his beachfront property.

Gene Neill was issued a stop-work order from council for a seawall in front of his property along Frankston South foreshore.

Neill bought the seaside mansion in December last year, and by February he'd already begun building the wall, without the council's approval.

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He said he was concerned about the safety of his home and was being refused insurance after two recent landslides on the peninsula.

"If you have a look here, as you can see it's quite a serious landslide, and as you see what's happened in McCrae, somebody's lost their house," Neill told 9News.

"It has to be done."

Neill claims he decided to go ahead with the construction because other properties along the foreshore also had unapproved retaining walls.

"We're pretty much the only house here without a seawall. Everyone else here has got protection, besides us," he said.

"But we've gone way beyond what anyone else has done here.

"My understanding is you can't get a permit so it's a matter of, I just have to do it, we have to protect our home and that's what we're doing."

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But Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke says his office has had more than 50 complaints since Friday, with locals concerned about the amount of vegetation being removed from the beach.

"We will not stand for this. People cannot just move into our area and in three months, destroy some of the most beautiful habitat in Frankston," Edbrooke said.

"My biggest concern is the lack of any accountability from people that move into Frankston three months beforehand, and within three months we see 700 sqm of protected foreshore scrub gone."

Officers from Frankston City Council have visited the site and officially ordered works to halt as the council investigates.

The council has warned if the stop-work order is breached it will be forced to consider legal action.

But Neill says he is now considering moving on from the multimillion-dollar property completely.

"I'm prepared to rip it all up and let nature do it's thing and have more landslides until it reaches the house," Neill said.

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The parents of one of the young women who died after drinking tainted alcohol in the south-east Asian nation of Laos have called on Australians to boycott the country.

Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones died from methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng in November.

They were staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel.

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In total six people died from the poisoning incident.

Jones' parents have now asked Aussies not to go there amid the lack of investigation

"There's been no communication," Bianca's dad Mark Jones told the ABC.

"We've had no updates. We're led to believe that they had 12 people in custody, they've all been released.

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"There were no Laos nationals which had been arrested from what we understand.

"We are just bitterly disappointed that there seems to be no progress."

Bianca's mother Michelle Jones added: "Our girls were murdered and nothing's getting done."

Australian Federal Police have offered help but it was rejected by the Laos authorities.

The couple said Aussies should not visit the nation.

"Don't go," Mrs Jones said.

"You want people to come to your country, make it safe," Mr Jones said.

"You go to other countries and this doesn't happen."

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Holly's father, Sean Bowles told the ABC it was "surreal" his daughter was gone, comparing it to a "nightmare".

"It's probably something that you don't want anyone else to go through," he said.

A medical professor who has had a new treatment to treat his brain cancer has undergone a "complex surgery".

Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer, 58, said he had the latest operation after a "tough" time which saw "changes" detected in his brain.

"Unfortunately my recent scans show some new changes which could be an effect of my previous treatment or recurrent brain tumour," he said on Instagram.

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Scolyer said he is now recovering from the latest operation at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney.

"Now I am focused on my recovery," he said, thanking people for their wishes.

Scolyer was diagnosed with incurable grade 4 brain cancer

He risked shortening his lifespan with an experimental treatment based on Professor Georgina Long and her team's work on melanoma.

The pair were named Australians of the Year in 2024.

He became the world's first brain cancer patient to have pre-surgery combination immunotherapy.

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While overseas for a work conference, Scolyer had a seizure and was diagnosed with an "incurable" glioblastoma.

The brain tumour was aggressive and he was given six to nine months to live.

For the past 20 years, there have been no major advancements in brain cancer treatment.

But Long used everything they've learnt about treating melanoma to try and cure his tumour, A Current Affair reported.

As Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches south-east Queensland, Gold Coast residents are recalling the most extreme weather events to hit the city, including devastating cyclones and more recently, a mini tornado.

In the past, cyclones such as the Great Gold Coast Cyclone of 1954, another in 1962, and Tropical Cyclone Wanda in 1974 brought torrential rainfall, leading to widespread flooding.

Local resident Joan Rudd told 9News during one severe rain event the bridge at Nerang rose so high that boats floated over it.

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"We had water over our house," Rudd said.

"You looked down across the coast, and it was water from Nerang to the sea."

She said army was called in to assist residents in sandbagging the foreshore, and makeshift walls were constructed using crumpled car bodies and old drums.

Despite these efforts, the force of the waves proved challenging, with excavators almost being washed away.

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The southern Gold Coast has also been severely affected in the past, with areas like Kirra experiencing significant flooding.

The point at Kirra was built to protect Coolangatta and another groyne was built to stabilise Currumbin from hazardous swell.

In December 2023, a mini tornado struck the city, causing significant damage.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.

He was last seen wearing a light grey hoodie, dark shorts and black sandals.

One person said they were ‘heartbroken’ by the announcement.

AFL great Nicky Winmar has asked to "courageously" co-lead a landmark racism class action brought by retired Indigenous players, lawyers say.

The action was lodged in the Supreme Court by Phil Krakouer, who played 141 games for North Melbourne, in September 2023, alleging senior AFL management did nothing to prevent racism within the sport.

Former players claim they experienced racism, racial vilification, racial discrimination, racial abuse, racial violence or victimisation between 1975 and 2022, while participating in the AFL competition.

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Krakouer, who was formally leading the case, may be joined by another leading plaintiff, the court was told this afternoon.

The AFL is fighting the allegations and its barrister Mark Costello KC questioned whether that plaintiff could be involved in the action when he was also involved in a separation case about concussions.

He said the AFL was also concerned by delays to the case, which was filed 18 months ago.

"The types of statements made in respect of people with long histories, not only with the game but also connection with Indigenous players in the game," he told the court.

"It is important that your honour is aware that this litigation has ongoing affects outside this courtroom."

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Outside court, the class action's lawyer Michel Margalit confirmed the plaintiff seeking to join was former St Kilda and Western Bulldogs player Nicky Winmar.

She said Winmar was already one of the players involved as part of the class action, but had "courageously" offered to become co-lead plaintiff.

"We are currently as a legal team considering whether this is to the benefit of the class action, and we're of course in the hands of the court as to whether or not this is appropriate moving forward," she told reporters.

"Nicky Winmar has been a trailblazer through our time.

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"He really stands to fight to eradicate racial vilification in the game, to make it a safe place for all football players."

Winmar fought back against a number of alleged acts of racism throughout his career, including during a 1993 game against Collingwood where he was racially abused by the crowd.

He stood defiantly in front of opposition spectators who had been hurling racial abuse at him, lifted his jersey and pointed at his skin.

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"I'm black and I'm proud to be black," he told the crowd.

Winmar's gesture, described as a powerful statement against racism, has been memorialised in a statue outside Perth Stadium.

The case was adjourned to a later date.