TRANSCRIPT
United States and Ukrainian officials say they have held a productive meeting as part of talks to finalise a peace deal with Russia.
Discussions are being held between teams from the U-S, Ukraine, the U-K, France and Germany.
European countries have rallied around Ukraine in a push to revise a plan, proposed by President Trump, which is seen as favouring Russia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is leading the talks.
"So it is in my personal view that we've had probably the most productive and meaningful meetings so far in this entire process, since we've been involved, from the beginning. Our teams have now gone to their rooms as we're working on some of the suggestions that were proffered to us, so we're working through making some changes, some adjustments, in the hopes of further narrowing the differences and getting closer to something that both Ukraine and obviously the United States are very comfortable with."
Before the meeting, Mr Trump took to social media to criticise Ukraine for a lack of gratitude for U-S military assistance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is waiting for the outcome of the talks.
—
Fifty of the 303 schoolchildren abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria's Niger [[nee-jair]] state have escaped captivity and are back with their families.
The school's owner says the children, aged between 10 and 18, escaped individually between Friday and Saturday.
He says 253 schoolchildren and 12 teachers are still held by the kidnappers.
In one of the largest school abductions in Nigeria's history, the children and their teachers were seized by gunmen who attacked St Mary's School on Friday.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions and authorities say tactical squads and local hunters have been deployed to rescue the children.
—
The death toll from major flooding in Vietnam has reached 90, with 12 people still missing after days of heavy rain and landslides.
Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding.
Whole sections of coastal Nha Trang city were inundated last week, while deadly landslides struck highland passes around the Da Lat tourist hub.
The mountainous province of Dak Lak has also been hit hard by heavy rain.
—
Conservative Coalition leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie has emerged as the most popular preferred opposition leader behind Sussan Ley [[lee]] ahead of Parliament’s crucial last sitting week.
That’s according to a Newspoll published by The Australian last night, which shows the Coalition’s reversal on net zero climate policy has failed to lift its record low primary vote from 24 per cent.
Labor leads the two-party preferred vote by 58 to 42 per cent, with One Nation maintaining a primary vote of 15 per cent amid speculation Ms Ley could face a leadership challenge.
She still leads Mr Hastie as preferred party leader, at 21 compared to 15 per cent, while her previous challenger, Angus Taylor, trails at 9 per cent.
Liberal Senator James Paterson has told told Sky News he’s certain Ms Ley won’t be challenged this week.
”Whatever the results are tonight, I'm sure they will say that we've got more work to do, because the average of recent polls show that we've got more work to do to be competitive, and we all know that. I think now with a very strong position on net zero and affordable energy we can unite behind that principle and take the fight up to the government.”
—
In Formula One, McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix more than four hours after the race finished, in a sensational setback to their championship bid.
The pair had claimed second and fourth place respectively – before stewards realised the rearmost skids underneath their McLaren cars were less than the 9 millimetre thickness required.
As both hunt their first title, the shock ruling trims Norris's championship lead to 24 points, with Piastri second in the standings with two rounds remaining.
Equal second to Piastria is Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who says he’s very happy after winning the race.
"I think over the whole stint, yeah, we were very consistent. We could do a few more laps compared to some others, and that was, I know, of course, probably also crucial on the final set."
