TRANSCRIPT:
- Democrats celebrate victory with Zohran Mamdani's win in New York and California's new redistribution boundaries
- Satellite images reveal the atrocities in Sudan, as the massacre unfolds
- Jake Weatherald in contention to open as Steve Smith replaces injured Pat Cummins
In the US, Democrats are celebrating another victory in California, after Zohran Mamdani's historic win in the New York City mayoral election.
California voters have voted for new congressional district boundaries, paving the way for the Democrats to win control of the House of Representative in the midterm elections.
The approval of Proposition 50 means Democrats may win five additional seats in the coming midterm election.
The state's Democratic governor Gavin Newsom says the election shows California's stance on US President Donald Trump.
"We stood tall and we stood firm in response to Donald Trump's recklessness. And tonight, after poking the bear, this bear roared with unprecedented turnout in a special election with an extraordinary result."
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New York's newly-elected mayor Zohran Mamdani says he is confident that he will be able to deliver on his ambitious agenda.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist beat former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
He's vowed to keep ICE agents accountable over the way they treat suspected illegal immigrants, and spoke out against Donald Trump, who he says has made groceries harder to afford.
He's promised his new team of officials - all women - will deliver:
"We will form an administration that is in equal parts capable and compassionate, driven by integrity, and willing to work just as hard as the millions of New Yorkers who call this city home."
US Vice-President JD Vance says the Democratic election wins are not a big deal.
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Satellite images from Sudan have played a crucial role in uncovering the explosion of violence by the paramilitary takeover in the western Darfur region.
Experts say its the only way to track the region and city of Al-Fasher - captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on 26 October.
Thousands are believed to have been killed in widespread massacres.
The United Nations had earlier warned the conflict in Sudan is spiralling out of control, calling on warring parties to come to the negotiating table.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described it as an epicentre of suffering.
More than 40,000 people were killed and 14 million people have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the war, in April 2023.
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Optus has reported another major outage, this time disrupting mobile and data services across the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and leaving customers unable to make emergency calls.
The company says a fibre break caused the blackout on Wednesday afternoon, affecting Port Stephens, Maitland and nearby areas.
It comes just days after Optus executives faced a Senate inquiry over a September outage linked to three deaths, where they admitted waiting nearly 18 hours to alert authorities.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Communications says Optus has notified the government and regulators and is being closely monitored.
The company has been urged to fix the problem quickly and keep customers informed.
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To sport, Tasmania's Jake Weatherald is in contention to open the batting for Australia's men's cricket team in the opening Ashes test in Perth.
Steve Smith will captain the side in Pat Cummins' absence, but it's hoped a back injury will only keep him out for the opening test.
The 15 man squad named today also saw Marnus Labuschagne included - but there was no place for Sam Konstas in the side.
Head selector of the national side, George Bailey, says that Konstas is still on an upwards trajectory as a cricketer.
"I feel for Sammy, because i think if he... I feel like at the moment if he farts it's a headline and there's a handful of young guys his age playing shield cricket around the country and they're all learning and they're all going through a journey of becoming the best cricketer they can be and Sammy's no different to that, he just seems to doing it under what seems to be immense scrutiny at the moment."
