The Australian Federal Police said it had sent 100 officers to the Solomon Islands on Wednesday to boost security for the Pacific Games which starts next week.

Blackened windows, shattered bedrooms, pockmarked walls.

Powerful Russian anti-ship missiles acquired by Hezbollah give it the means to deliver on its leader’s veiled threat against U.S. warships and underline the grave risks of any regional war, sources familiar with the group’s arsenal say.

An attempt by Pacific Islands Forum leaders to revisit a unity pact has sparked a walk-out by Nauru, showing tensions remain close to the surface at the pivotal regional body.

Russian forces, their numbers swelled by reserves, tightened their vise around the shattered eastern city of Avdiivka.

Washington’s National Zoo bid a tearful farewell to its beloved trio of giant pandas as the long-serving goodwill ambassadors to the U.S. capital began a journey back to China that was announced earlier this year.

Belgium’s deputy prime minister called on the Belgian government to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.

Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged in a forlorn procession out of the north of Gaza on Wednesday seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

Millions of Australians were left without a phone or internet connection on Wednesday after the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider experienced an unexplained nationwide outage.

This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world’s hottest October in that period.

Democrats and abortion rights advocates notched a string of electoral victories, including in conservative Ohio and Kentucky, an early signal that reproductive rights remain a potent issue for Democrats ahead of the 2024 presidential race.

Israel’s military is starting the next phase of its war against Hamas, targeting the Islamist group’s labyrinth of tunnels and command structures in northern Gaza in an operation that may take months to complete, security sources said.