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Australia’s left-leaning government will cut income tax, slash student debt and hasten defence spending under an annual budget released Tuesday, courting voters as it readies to fight a tight general election.The Labor government — due to announce the election date by the end of the week — booked a spending deficit of US$17 billion as …

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An Israeli air strike killed a journalist working with Al Jazeera on Monday and the military issued fresh calls to evacuate parts of Gaza’s north, as Israel pressed its renewed bombardment and ground operations in the Palestinian territory.Israel resumed intense air strikes across Gaza last Tuesday, followed by ground operations, after talks on extending a ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached an impasse.On Monday evening, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued “an early warning before a strike” in the northern area of Jabalia.”Terrorist organizations are once again returning to and firing rockets from populated areas… For your safety, head south toward the known shelters immediately,” Adraee said on X, after issuing similar warnings for the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun.Earlier, Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli drone strike on Monday afternoon killed Hussam Shabat, who was working with Al Jazeera, near a petrol station in Beit Lahia.Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, said air strikes had targeted more than 10 cars, including Shabat’s, in various parts of Gaza.”Hussam Shabat, a journalist collaborating with Al Jazeera Mubasher, was martyred in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the northern Gaza Strip,” an alert from the Qatari broadcaster said, referring to its live Arabic channel.AFPTV footage from the scene in Beit Lahia showed Palestinians gathering around the car, which had an Al Jazeera sticker on its windscreen. A body could be seen on the ground nearby.According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel’s military in October accused Shabat and five other Palestinian journalists of being militants, which he denied.Hundreds of people attended Shabat’s funeral held at Beit Lahia’s Indonesian Hospital, praying over his body, which still wore a press flak jacket.The civil defence agency said a media worker from Islamic Jihad-affiliated Palestine Today TV, Muhammad Mansour, was killed in a separate air strike in Gaza’s south.In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called the deaths of Shabat and Mansour “a crime added to the record of Israeli terrorism”. It said that more than 206 journalists and media workers had been killed since the start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.- ‘Imagine this is your son’ -The October 7 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 50,082 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.The health ministry said Monday that 730 people had been killed since Israel resumed bombardments on March 18, including 57 in the past 24 hours.Militants also seized 251 hostages on October 7, 58 of whom are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Monday showing two Israeli hostages — identified by AFP as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana — describing the danger they have faced since the resumption of intense Israeli strikes. Bohbot’s family reacted to the video with a statement appealing to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to secure the remaining hostages’ release.”Imagine this is your son, the father of your grandchild, waiting to see daylight, hearing (Israeli army) bombs, and living in constant fear for his life,” the statement said.- Civilians ‘trapped’ -Israel’s military said it intercepted a total of three “projectiles” launched from the Gaza Strip on Monday evening. The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it had launched rockets towards Israel.The military also said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, the sixth since the resumption of Gaza hostilities.The Huthis later claimed responsiblity for two missiles, saying they would “target the heartland of the occupying entity until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted”. The Huthi news agency Saba late Monday reported 12 US airstrikes “in the last few hours” in northwest Yemen.The Israel military said Tuesday it had again struck two military bases in central Syria, a day after the European Union’s foreign policy chief warned strikes there and in Lebanon risked escalation.”A short while ago, the IDF struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian military bases of Tadmur and T4,” the Israeli military said, referring to bases in Palmyra and another 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the city.On Monday during a visit to Jersalem, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon were threatening to worsen the situation.”Military actions must be proportionate, and Israeli strikes into Syria and Lebanon risk further escalation,” Kallas said.Meanwhile, the municipality of the southern Gaza city of Rafah said in a statement Monday that “thousands of civilians” were “trapped under intense Israeli shelling” in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood.It added that all communications were cut with the neighbourhood, and that the local health care system had “entirely collapsed”.On Sunday the military said it had encircled Tal al-Sultan to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate” militants there.The defence ministry also announced the creation of an administration dedicated to the “voluntary departure of Gaza residents to a third country”, drawing outrage from Egypt.Egypt, which borders Gaza and Israel, expressed “its strong condemnation” of the creation of this authority, the foreign ministry said on X.bur-az-lba-acc/smw/giv/fox

Top Trump administration officials texted a group chat including a journalist plans for strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels, the White House said, an extraordinary security breach that shocked Washington’s political elite.US President Donald Trump announced the strikes on March 15, but The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on Monday that he had hours of advance notice via the group chat on Signal, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance.Top Democrats were quick to condemn the breach, saying it was potentially illegal and calling for an investigation to find out how it happened, while Republicans tried to play down the incident.”The message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.The White House said Trump “continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team,” after the US president earlier said he did not “know anything about” the issue.Hegseth, a former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, took no responsibility for the security breach as he spoke to reporters late Monday.He instead attacked Goldberg and insisted that “nobody was texting war plans,” despite the White House confirming the breach.Goldberg wrote that Hegseth sent information on the strikes, including on “targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” to the group chat.”According to the lengthy Hegseth text, the first detonations in Yemen would be felt two hours hence, at 1:45 pm eastern time,” Goldberg wrote — a timeline that was borne out on the ground in Yemen.The leak could have been highly damaging if Goldberg had publicized details of the plan in advance, but he did not do so.The journalist said he was added to the group chat two days earlier, and received messages from other top government officials designating representatives who would work on the issue.On March 14, a person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Huthi attacks on shipping than the United States.- ‘Dangerous’ -Group chat contributors identified as National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Hegseth both sent messages arguing only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the latter official saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading.”As he spoke to reporters Monday Hegseth dodged questions about the leak, in which highly sensitive material was also shared on a commercial app rather than in secure military channels reserved for such communications.The security breach provoked outrage among Democrats, including some like Senator Elizabeth Warren who said the exchange over group chat could be illegal.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described it as “one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about” and called for a full investigation.And Hillary Clinton — who was repeatedly attacked by Trump for using a private email server while she was secretary of state — posted on X: “You have got to be kidding me.”The reaction of top Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson was less critical.Johnson said those involved should not be punished, calling it a “mistake” that “won’t happen again”, news site Axios reported. But former national security officials reacted with shock.”Some of these issues… they should only be discussed face to face,” former national security advisor John Bolton told CNN.”I have no faith that the Department of Justice will prosecute anyone involved.”- Huthi attacks -The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.The Huthis’ campaign crippled the vital route, which normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic.The US began targeting the Huthis in response under the previous administration of president Joe Biden, and has launched repeated rounds of strikes on Huthi targets, some with British support.Trump has vowed to “use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” citing the Huthis’ threats against Red Sea shipping.