The federal government will sell off $3bn in defence properties around the country, after a major audit of land holdings found they served no useful strategic value. Defence sites – including Victoria Barracks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – will be sold after the multi-year audit, tasked with identifying surplus …

Clive Palmer has denied Steve Bannon helped direct his advertising blitz in the 2019 federal election, suggesting texts published in the Jeffrey Epstein files about the strategy were an attempt by the former Trump strategist to “increase his own influence” by claiming credit. Palmer said he’d never communicated with Epstein …

The Indian government has condemned the theft of a bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi from a community centre in Melbourne’s south-east last month, calling for the culprits to be held accountable. Victoria police are investigating the theft from the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville and have warned scrap metal …

The last British prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018. Before the visit, she and her team were advised to get dressed under the covers because of the risk of hidden cameras having been placed in their hotel rooms to record compromising material. Keir Starmer, in Beijing …

It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea. Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”. Instead, …

Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals. The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way …

Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks. “Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and …

China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla. According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in …

A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey. Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands …

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has pledged to send humanitarian aid this week to Cuba and said Mexico was “exploring all diplomatic avenues to be able to send fuel to the Cuban people”, despite efforts from Washington to cut off oil to the Caribbean nation. Donald Trump last week signed an …