US completes 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran, Concerns the Federal Government will not meet social and affordable housing target, Jessica Fox claims two gold in two days at canoe slalom world champs.
Listen to Australian and world news and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.
TRANSCRIPT
- US completes 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran ...
- Concerns the Federal Government will not meet social and affordable housing target ...
- Jessica Fox claims two gold in two days at canoe slalom world champs ...
The United States military says it's completed an 11th consecutive night of strikes on Iran, with the attacks across the Middle East overshadowing diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal.
Central Command says targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.
This latest barrage comes after President Donald Trump signalled strikes would be intensifying.
Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has visited Pakistan, which has been a key mediator in the conflict, but Trump says the US has no interest in meeting and suggests US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium.
Louisiana Republican Senator, John Kennedy, says Congress and the American people need answers on the Iran War.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday about the White House’s request for additional defense funding.
Hegseth told the Committee hearing the United States' war in Iran has cost 37.5 billion US dollars so far.
Senator Kennedy says there's a lot that still needs to be explained.
Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg is raising concerns the federal government will not meet its target to build 40,000 new social and affordable homes by June 2029.
Reports from the Australian National Audit Office into two schemes designed to increase the number of new homes have found 1,432 homes were completed by April, which included 762 new homes built by housing providers and 670 homes built by private industry and purchased by housing providers.
The report forecasts 20,000 homes will be completed by mid-2028 and the full 40,000 completed by the target.
But Mr Bragg says he's skeptical given they've only completed 5 per cent of the target so far.
"Of those houses, half of those have been purchased, what that tells you is the government will never ever meet its target of 40,000 social and affordable houses, it's less than 5% of the way there and this fund has a litany of governance and structural issues that have been identified by the auditor general."
Opposition leader Angus Taylor says he's against the return of an Australian affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, urging the government to prevent his return.
According to The Australian newspaper, the man is among 13 Australians jailed in Iraq who are hoping to leave and return to Australia.
The Perth-born doctor was originally thought to have been killed in Syria nearly a decade ago
The Federal Government says it has not and will not provide assistance to any Australian who joins a terrorist organisation.
Angus Taylor says Labor needs to make sure he doesn't return.
"They can ensure this person doesn't get a passport, they can use temporary exclusion orders. We have put legislation in front of the parliament to prevent third parties from helping people like him, terrorists, back in the country. IS-IS is a brutal organisation and anyone who has been part of it, has been offshore as part of it, should not return to our country."
A team of experts at a lab in Poland is undertaking a delicate process to clean a 240 million year old fossil.
The fossil of a Mastodonsaurus, which lived during the Middle Triassic period, is being cleaned by an army of more then 2,000 volunteers, who take it in turns to slowly chip rock off the fossil.
Mastodonsaurus was one of the largest amphibians ever to roam the Earth, a fearsome aquatic predator from the dawn of the dinosaurs.
Coordinator of the volunteer teams, Tatyana Kozyk, says the fossil is larger than others of the same species, at 6 metres.
"I imagine these bones have been lying around for 240-220 million years. I'm the first person on Earth to touch it. I'm the first person on the entire planet to discover it, that it's been waiting for so many years, and I'm the one touching it, discovering it. To this day, I can't wrap my head around it, that it's on such a scale, really."
Jessica Fox has won two gold medals in two days at the canoe slalom [[slaa-luhm]] world championships in the United States.
A day after three-time Olympic champion Fox claimed gold in the kayak cross time trial event, the 32-year-old joined her youngster sister Noemie Fox and Kate Eckhardt at the top of the podium for the team gold medal.
It's the second title for the trio after winning gold in London in 2023 in the same event, which is only contested at the world championships.
Fox has had a strong return to competition after undergoing surgery to remove a tumour from a kidney last August.
The course will also be used to host the canoe slalom at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, giving the Aussies good practice ahead of the Games.
