Australasia

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) speaks with students after speaking at an official event at Sydney University in Sydney on July 15, 2026.

Australian PM says to enact laws to govern AI

Australia announces plans to regulate AI data centres' power and water use while strengthening copyright protections for creators.

13 HOURS AGO

Australia signs defense alliance with Pacific nation Fiji

Australia signed a new defense alliance with Fiji on Monday, bolstering ties as it seeks to outmanoeuvre China's push to hold sway in the South Pacific.

July 6, 2026

Australia, Vanuatu sign deal barring foreign military base on Pacific Island

The prime ministers of Australia and Vanuatu signed an agreement Monday that bars a foreign military base on the Pacific island

June 29, 2026

Trainers Kyrraley (L) and Tom Woodhouse (R) tend to their camels a day before the Marree Australasian Camel Cup meet in the South Australian outback town of Marree on June 26, 2026. (AFP)

'High-strung' camels race in Australian outback

Hundreds of spectators descended on Marree for a 13-race spectacle on Saturday known as the Marree Camel Cup.

June 28, 2026

This undated handout photo released by the Australian Antarctic Division on June 18, 2026, shows the Australian icebreaker RSV Nuyina at Heard Island. A pathogenic strain of bird flu killed more than 13,000 elephant seal pups after infecting a breeding co

Bird flu kills 13,000 seal pups on remote Australian island

A deadly H5 bird flu outbreak on Australia’s remote Heard and McDonald Islands killed more than 13,000 southern elephant seal pups, marking the virus’s first detection in an Australian external territory.

June 18, 2026

The hearing was held to examine the State Department's budget request for fiscal year 2027. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Kevin Dietsch / NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

US approves $1.5B sale of helicopters to New Zealand

The United States Department of State confirms the approval of a $1.5 billion sale of MH-60R helicopters and related equipment to New Zealand.

June 6, 2026

Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) shows some of the 100,000 contraband cockroaches found in a raid on a commercial breeder in the town of Bathurst, west of Sydney. (Photo: AFP)

Australia seizes 100,000 cockroaches in bug-breeder bust

Officials now have the unenviable task of euthanizing the creepy-crawlies, an insect so hardy it spawned an urban legend they could survive a nuclear blast.

June 5, 2026

Bondi Beach attack hero charged with assaulting father: Media

A Sydney man credited with saving dozens of lives during last year's deadly mass shooting on Bondi Beach has been charged with assaulting his father, local media and police said Thursday

June 4, 2026

Independent CONICET researcher and National University of Cordoba associate professor Raul Gonzalez Ittig holds a preserved specimen of a Graomys chacoensis rodent inside the Population Genetics and Evolution Laboratory of the Institute of Diversity and A

Passenger from hantavirus cruise quarantines on remote Pitcairn Island

A US woman exposed to hantavirus from the MV Hondius cruise ship is quarantined on remote Pitcairn Island, raising concerns among its tiny isolated community.

May 15, 2026