The Waratah Super Battery will stabilise the grid and put further downward pressure on electricity prices, experts say * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The biggest battery on Australia’s energy grid is now on standby as a shock absorber to prevent blackouts in New South Wales. The Waratah Super Battery will also allow NSW to use and transmit more energy, applying further downward pressure on electricity prices, experts say. Continue reading...

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Lower-level Ukrainian delegations to negotiate after Russian president shies from Zelenskyy’s challenge to meet; Sumy attack kills three. What we know on day 1,177 Vladimir Putin has refused a challenge to attend peace talks in Turkey but Nato ministers will still meet there as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, promises to update allies on UK steps to “force Putin’s hand” while the Russian president refuses to accept a 30-day ceasefire. Britain and its military allies will be working to “step up” their collective security at the informal meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Antalya, Lammy said. Military officers from about 30 countries have been drawing up plans to enforce a potential peace in Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is due in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Thursday where he will meet with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Ukraine-Russia talks are due to take place in Istanbul on Thursday, but due to Putin’s refusal to attend, they will not be at the presidential level. Putin announced on Wednesday that he would send Vladimir Medinsky, a presidential adviser; and Alexander Fomin, a deputy defence minister; Igor Kostyukov, an intelligence director; and Mikhail Galuzin, a deputy foreign minister. Zelenskyy had promised to reciprocate if Putin attended, and said this week that Putin skipping the talks would signal an unwillingness to seek peace that should be met with massive western sanctions and more military aid for Ukraine. Significantly, Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, both top negotiators for the Kremlin, were not named in the Russian delegation. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is expected in Istanbul on Friday to take part in what are the first direct peace talks since failed efforts in the first weeks of the Russian full-scale invasion. Rubio met with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, on Wednesday in Antalya. Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Wednesday that there must not be any settlement in Ukraine in the form of a “dictated peace” from Moscow. Addressing parliament, Merz warned of “militarily created facts against Ukraine’s will”, telling lawmakers it was “of paramount importance that the political west does not allow itself to be divided”. A Russian missile attack on Wednesday killed three people at an industrial site near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, said the regional governor, Oleh Hryhorov. Sumy sits opposite Russia’s Kursk region – a Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday killed 35 people. Continue reading...

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‘This day we mourn everything that has happened and what is still happening’, says one Wiradjuri man * Reflection, recollection and resistance: Invasion Day 2025 – in pictures * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The smell…

Letter rallying supporters comes as he faces arrest over declaration of martial law and allegations of insurrection South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has rallied his supporters in a letter saying he would “fight until the end” as he faces…

Countries promised to save 30% of land and sea for nature - but as their deadline approaches, only 24 have followed through with a plan More than 80% of countries have failed to submit plans to meet a UN agreement to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems, new analysis has found. Nearly two years ago, the world struck a once-in-a-decade deal in Montreal, Canada, that included targets to protect 30% of land and sea for nature, reform billions of dollars on environmentally harmful subsidies and slash pesticide usage. Countries committed to submit their plans for meeting the agreement before the biodiversity Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which begins this month – but only 25 countries have done so. Continue reading...

Steven James Hubbard given six years and 10 months in prison, but family cast doubt on his reported confession A Russian court has sentenced a 72-year-old American citizen, Stephen James Hubbard, to six years and 10 months in prison after convicting him in a closed-door trial of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Investigators said Hubbard, a native of Michigan, was paid $1,000 (£760) a month to serve in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit in the eastern city of Izyum, where he had been living since 2014. Continue reading...

Confirmation that the former Victorian premier will have a statue in his honour has sparked another series of headlines Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Friday marked Jacinta Allan’s one-year anniversary as Victorian premier – but it was her predecessor, Daniel Andrews, whose name appeared in the headline on the front page of News Corp’s Melbourne tabloid. This time, the Herald Sun’s focus was on a bronze statue of the former premier which the state government confirmed would be erected in his honour outside 1 Treasury Place to mark 3,000 days in office. Continue reading...