Australia news LIVE: Albanese joins Bowen at UN climate talks; Teals launch donation rush ahead of controversial new rules; Hegseth fires back over impeachment

Today’s headlines

By Emily Kaine

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Wednesday, November 11. Here’s what is making news today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on his way to Turkey to join Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at the UN’s annual climate negotiations. Bowen has signalled he would like an agreement on electrification to be part of a final COP cover text, but India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse polluter, has already opposed the proposition.
• The political fundraising machine behind the teal independents is scrambling to raise millions before new donation caps take effect and have accused Labor and the Coalition of rigging the rules to protect themselves.
• And in Washington, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed the impeachment proceedings against him as a politically motivated stunt by a disgruntled politician. Hegseth insisted all his actions in office had been legal, including the war in Iran and extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers in international waters.

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Meghan’s father cuts off ankle monitor following arrest

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Thomas Markle snr, the estranged father of Meghan, cut off his ankle monitor after he was arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material, the Department of Justice said.

He was in custody awaiting a hearing in federal court in Tampa, Florida, first assistant US attorney Bill Essayli said.

He was arrested shortly after he cut off the ankle bracelet at 1.45am, Essayli said on Tuesday (US time).

Markle’s arrest last week followed the seizure of approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books that contained suspected child sexual abuse images in storage in the Los Angeles area.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

AP

Russia, Ukraine hold nearly four hours of US-mediated talks

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Abu Dhabi: Russia and Ukraine held their first US-mediated talks in nine months on ending the almost five-year war, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the meeting “very productive” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the session was “constructive and quite substantive”.

Hopes of ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II are tempered, however, by the absence of any significant breakthroughs in three previous rounds of talks this year.

There’s nothing to suggest a new posture that would lead to a breakthrough, but circumstances surrounding the talks have been changed by the outcome of the US midterm elections and increased pressure on Russia’s wartime economy. Moscow also is seeking to break Ukrainians’ will as another winter sets in by ramping up its battering of the country’s power grid.

Neither Rubio nor Zelensky attended the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The session lasted four hours and another is scheduled for Wednesday (UAE time).

Pinned post from 6.17am

Today’s headlines

By Emily Kaine

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Wednesday, November 11. Here’s what is making news today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on his way to Turkey to join Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at the UN’s annual climate negotiations. Bowen has signalled he would like an agreement on electrification to be part of a final COP cover text, but India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse polluter, has already opposed the proposition.
• The political fundraising machine behind the teal independents is scrambling to raise millions before new donation caps take effect and have accused Labor and the Coalition of rigging the rules to protect themselves.
• And in Washington, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed the impeachment proceedings against him as a politically motivated stunt by a disgruntled politician. Hegseth insisted all his actions in office had been legal, including the war in Iran and extrajudicial killing of suspected drug traffickers in international waters.

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