Australia and New Zealand both face damaging winds and heat this week, with the New Zealand meteorological agency on Wednesday warning conditions will deteriorate on Thursday.

A sophisticated cannabis crop has been dismantled, with police seizing thousands of cannabis plants worth $15 million.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cited an Australian aid worker killed in Gaza, along with journalists and “tens of thousands of civilians”, in a speech at the United Nations where dozens of leaders met on Monday to promote Palestinian statehood.

Australia has officially recognised the state of Palestine, marking a shift in long-standing foreign policy, as Anthony Albanese walks a fine diplomatic line with the nation’s most important security ally.

Weary of bomb threats to mosques and schools and mounting levels of persecution, Muslims in Australia are calling on the government to take Islamophobia seriously.

More than 300 South Koreans who were detained in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US state of Georgia last week are due to arrive home on Friday.

Australia and Japan on Monday said they would deepen cooperation to address increasing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, including assisting each other in evacuating citizens at risk overseas.

Australian authorities started clean-up efforts on Saturday after floods claimed five lives and inundated more than 10,000 properties in the country’s southeast.

Australian financial markets largely welcomed a historic win by the centre-left Labor Party as it strengthens the government’s hand in dealing with any serious threat to the economy from Donald Trump’s global trade war.

Australia’s Anthony Albanese claimed a historic second term as prime minister.

Doctors will defy orders to refrain from industrial action, striking for the first time in decades following almost a year of unsuccessful talks.

Wild surf conditions with massive tides have battered beaches as walkways collapse and businesses depending on foot traffic sustain heavy damage.