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Barack Obama and Donald Trump before the state funeral service for former US president Jimmy Carter in 2025. (AFP: Roberto Schmidt)
Barack Obama has indirectly addressed a video posted on Donald Trump's social media that depicted him as a monkey.
The AI-generated clip was later blamed on staff error and deleted.
The former US president has criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country's political discourse.
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Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya previously said tests showed her husband was killed by poisoning. (AP Photo: Ivan Sekretarev)
Five European nations have accused Russia of using a deadly toxin taken from a South American frog to kill opposition figure Alexei Navalny two years ago.
In a joint statement, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands said the presence of epibatidine had been conclusively confirmed in samples taken from Navalny's body.
The toxin, found in poison dart frogs in South America, is about 100 times more potent than morphine and is not found naturally in Russia.
Researchers believe the frogs acquire the toxin through their diet, but those raised in captivity do not produce any.
Russian authorities said Navalny died in prison from natural causes after going for a walk and becoming ill in 2024.
But Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death.
"These labs in two different countries reached the same conclusion: Alexei was killed. More specifically, he was poisoned," Ms Navalnaya said.
Following the release of the joint statement from the five nations, Ms Navalnaya said on social media that she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband had been poisoned, "but now there is proof".
The alleged use of the deadly frog toxin marks an expansion in the arsenal of novel chemical weapons suspected of being used by Russia.
These are some of the other instances where the Russian regime is accused of unleashing poison upon its enemies.
Alexei Navlany, who crusaded against official corruption and staged anti-Kremlin protests, was Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe.
It is believed Navlany had been poisoned before.
It occurred on a domestic flight in Russia in 2020 when he fell ill, stumbling into the aisle and collapsing.
Navalny's plane, headed to Moscow from Tomsk in Siberia, was forced to make an emergency landing in Omsk so he could be rushed to hospital.
He was flown to a Berlin hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma and eventually made a full recovery after learning to walk and speak again.
German chemical weapons experts said toxicology reports showed he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
The staunch Putin critic fell violently ill on a flight and was in an induced coma for two weeks. (Supplied/Instagram)
Novichok is a highly toxic nerve agent that slows the heart, paralyses the muscles used for breathing and — if the dose is big enough — can lead to death by asphyxiation.
A smaller dose may result in seizures, neuromuscular weakness, liver failure and other damage.
More generally, nerve agents are highly toxic chemicals that can be either gas, aerosol or liquid, which poison the nervous system and disrupt bodily functions.
The Kremlin denied it was involved in poisoning Navalny and accused Germany of failing to provide evidence.
Initially, it was believed the poison was put in a cup of tea Navalny had at a cafe at the airport before boarding his flight, as that was the only thing he ingested that morning.
But subsequent investigations revealed the substance was likely applied to his underwear in his hotel room the night before he left for his flight.
Navalny released a recording of a phone call he said he made to a Russian state security operative, claiming he tricked the agent into disclosing details of a botched plot to kill him by placing poison in his underpants.
It was not the first time the deadly Novichok agent had been deployed against a critic of the Russian government.
In 2018, a man and woman were found slumped unconscious on a public bench outside a shopping centre in the southern English city of Salisbury.
The pair found by a doctor and nurse passing by would turn out to be former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Skripal, 66, is a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was arrested in 2004 in Moscow after it was found he had been working as a double agent for the British.
He was accused of passing on the identities of Russia's spies to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service MI6, in return for $US100,000.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury in March 2018. (AP: Misha Japaridze (L) / Facebook: Yulia Skripal (R))
Skripal was later freed in a prisoner swap, pardoned in exchange for 10 Russian agents.
He was granted asylum in the UK and lived openly under his own name, with his Salisbury address appearing in public records.
Speculation over how he was poisoned was rife in the UK tabloid media as he, his daughter and a police officer who investigated their home, Nick Bailey, received treatment in hospital.
Russian authorities denied any involvement, but within weeks the leaders of the United States, the UK, France and Germany concluded the Russian government was behind the attack, noting there was "no plausible alternative explanation".
Detectives found a high concentration of Novichok on the front door of Skripal's home.
Detectives initially named two Russian intelligence officers, Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin as suspects.
In 2021, they named a third, senior Russian agent, Denis Sergeev as the on-the-ground commander.
The Skripals and the police officer were able to make a full recovery.
But the attack had more grave, unintended consequences on innocent civilians.
About four months after the poisoning, mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died from exposure to the poison after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle that Russian spies were believed to have used to smuggle the Novichok into the country.
The counterfeit bottle of perfume recovered from Charlie Rowley's home. (Metropolitan Police handout via Reuters)
Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley were found unconscious at their home, a few kilometres from the scene of a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter in March.
Sturgess died after doctors made the decision to turn off her life support, while Mr Rowley ended up recovering.
Police said the perfume bottle, which was found to contain Novichok, was discarded in the Skripal attack, only to later be found by Mr Rowley.
Mr Rowley told ITV News that his partner became sick 15 minutes after spraying the perfume on her wrists and he came into contact with it after some tipped on his hands when attaching the spray dispenser to the bottle, but washed his hands.
An inquiry by the British government found that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised the assassination attempt on the Skripals with Novichok and there was a clear link between the use and discarding of Novichok and the death of Dawn Sturgess as well as the poisoning of Charlie Rowley.
Dawn Sturgess was poisoned by a Soviet-developed nerve agent. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
In 2006, ex-KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died an agonising death after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at London's Millennium Hotel.
Hours after drinking the tea, he suffered from sickness and stomach pain.
He lost all of his hair and died three weeks later from a cardiac arrest caused by organ malfunction.
Polonium-210 is a highly radioactive and extremely toxic element that emits intense alpha radiation.
One of Britain's top nuclear scientists told an inquiry the tiniest amount of polonium would be fatal.
Due to the levels of radiation, the autopsy on Litvinenko's body has been described as one of the most dangerous ever undertaken.
On his hospital bed in London in 2006, Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering his killing. (Reuters)
On his deathbed, Litvinenko claimed that Putin had directly ordered his assassination.
A British inquiry found that Russian agents had killed Litvinenko, probably with Putin's approval, but the Kremlin denied any involvement.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy says there are still questions remaining over future security guarantees for Ukraine. (AP: Michael Probst)
A Ukrainian drone has struck Russia's port of Taman in the Black Sea, damaging an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals.
Meanwhile, officials say falling debris from Russian drones have damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region.
US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine are set to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A Ukrainian drone strike has ignited fires at one of Russia's Black Sea ports, officials say, ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the war.
Two people were wounded in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, which took place on Sunday, local time.
The strike resulted in damage to an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
Meanwhile, falling debris from Russian drones damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region, officials said, causing disruption to the power and water supply.
Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian energy sites aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Russia wants to hamstring the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials have described as an attempt to "weaponise winter".
Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv after peace talks in January. (Reuters: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/File)
The attacks came ahead of another round of US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, just before the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 22.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, local time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested there were still questions remaining over future security guarantees for his country.
Ukrainian soldiers firing on Russian forces in the Donetsk region in January. (Reuters: Ukrainian Armed Forces/Oleg Petrasiuk/File)
Zelenskyy also questioned how the concept of a free trade zone, proposed by the US, would work in the Donbas region, which Russia has insisted Kyiv must give up for peace.
He said the Americans wanted peace as quickly as possible and that the US wanted to sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time, whereas Ukraine wanted guarantees for the country's future security signed first.
Previous US-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine's Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.
AP
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Alexei Navalny died in a Russian prison in February 2024. (Reuters: Shamil Zhumatov)
Five European nations have said jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Russian state.
Mr Navalny died in prison in 2024.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said there was now proof of what she had believed "from the first day".
Five European nations say Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin, and are blaming the Russian state for the attack.
The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said that analysis of samples from Mr Navalny, who died two years ago, "have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine."
It is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America.
The joint statement, released by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said that "only the Russian state had the combined means, motive and disregard for international law" to carry out the attack.
The countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Mr Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, died in the Arctic penal colony in February 2024.
He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.
Alexei Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya previously said tests showed her husband was killed by poisoning. (AP Photo: Ivan Sekretarev)
Mr Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before his death.
Ms Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Mr Navalny's death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.
Following the release of the statement, Ms Navalnaya said on social media that she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband had been poisoned, "but now there is proof".
Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.
AP
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Abed Al Ebayat has lived in the West Bank village of Fasayil for close to 20 years. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
In the West Bank village of Fasayil, the smell of rotting dates fills the air.
A few weeks ago, Israeli settlers dumped an enormous pile of animal feed on the doorstep of the last remaining Palestinian family to call the community home.
And the scent of it still lingers.
Abed Al Ebayat, who has lived there for close to 20 years, said the pressure from Israeli settlers was relentless.
"Their goal is to make the people leave … but where can we go to?" he asked.
"They harass us with their cows and sheep.
"They also cut the drinking water pipe … and there is nothing we can do."
Settlements are considered illegal under international law but supported by the Israeli government. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Further south in Duyuk al-Tahta, just outside Jericho, the ABC saw several Palestinian homes that had been reduced to rubble.
Activists said a day earlier, dozens of settlers came with heavy machinery and drove 15 families out of their community.
Sarit Michaeli, from Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, said it was part of a pattern of behaviour that increasingly involved "immense amounts of violence".
"This is a symbolic example of the way that Israeli settlers, totally supported by the government, are acting towards Palestinians throughout the entire rural part of the West Bank," she said.
"They're acting as if Palestinians don't really exist in those areas."
Last week, Israel's security cabinet agreed on a plan that would pave the way for future settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
Currently, Israelis can only purchase West Bank land using registered companies that require transaction permits.
Under the new plan, they will be able to purchase land directly.
Land records will also be declassified, making it easier for potential buyers to identify current owners.
In a statement announcing the policy, far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said: "We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state".
After the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu's government barred the entrance to Israel of more than 140,000 Palestinian workers from the West Bank, according to a report by the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS).
On the eve of the war, a Palestinian construction worker in Israel could earn more than double the average daily wage in the West Bank, the report found.
According the International Labour Organization, unemployment in the West Bank was forecast to reach 38.5 per cent by the end of 2025.
The INSS report said the economic situation was being exacerbated by Israel withholding some tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, causing the PA to reduce salaries and lay off workers.
One of these employees is Ibrahim Sider, who left his teaching job in a PA school and has been trying his luck in commerce.
He said the "unbearable" economic conditions were putting Palestinians in a desperate position, from which they could be under pressure to sell land.
Ibrahim Sider says Palestinians are in a "desperate position". (ABC News: MIchael Franchi)
"They have totally exhausted the Palestinian people," Mr Sider said.
"Starved them, impoverished them, and they will take all the land on a silver platter without shooting one bullet, unfortunately."
He said as Ramadan approached, people were thinking about how they would feed their families.
"What do you want me to do? Confront a settler, or spend on my children?" Mr Sider said.
Ms Michaeli said she believed Israel's plan was designed to capitalise on the economic hardship of Palestinians.
"I'm sure this is one of their intentions," she said.
"Private ownership of land has been one of the extremely rare, very meagre measures Palestinians enjoyed … against Israeli encroachment."
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to the ABC's request for comment, but said on social media the decision was about establishing "equality".
"The Cabinet's decision corrected a racist distortion based on Jordanian law — a law that discriminated against Jews, Americans, Europeans, and anyone who is not Arab regarding real estate purchases in Judea and Samaria," the statement said.
Shlomo Lecker, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said Palestinians enjoyed no such property ownership rights in Israel.
Shlomo Lecker is an Israeli human rights lawyer. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
"What are the rights of Palestinians to buy land in Israel?" he asked.
"They cannot buy land in Israel."
Mr Lecker said the security cabinet's plan represented "one more step" towards Israel's annexation of the West Bank.
According to Peace Now, an anti-settlement activist group, there were 141 Israeli settlements in the West Bank in 2023, plus hundreds of smaller outposts.
According to the Israeli government, at least 69 additional settlements have been approved or recognised since.
Nayef Ghawanme now lives in a tent after "day and night" harassment from settlers forced his family to leave their home in Ras Ein Al Auja, in the Jordan Valley.
"Patience has a limit. It was unbearable," the 50-year-old said.
He said the plan to allow Israelis to purchase West Bank land would further erode hopes of a Palestinian state.
Nayef Ghawanme says his family was being harassed by settlers at their home in Ras Ein Al Auja. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
"There will never be a Palestinian state," he said.
"The decisions, [of the Israeli cabinet] … will destroy the project."
"You can't have a Palestinian state and tell the settler to come and buy land from the owner directly.
"All the talk about a state is empty words."
The UK, European Union and eight Muslim-majority countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have condemned Israel's latest West Bank plan.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "gravely concerned".
However, Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon said Israel was "here to stay".
A settler outpost near Duyuk al-Tahta. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
"The history of the Jewish people is full of attempts to detach the Jewish people from the land of Israel," he said.
"It did not happen in the past, and it will not happen in the future."
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said settlements were "illegal under international law" and that altering the demographic composition of Palestine was "unacceptable".
"A two-state solution remains the only viable path to long-term peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike," the statement said.
Giv'at Ze'ev is a long-established settlement in the West Bank. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
However, Mr Lecker said words alone were unlikely to change the Israeli government's course.
"The state is now ruled by extremist, right-wing parties," he said.
"We wanted to believe there would be more involvement of foreign states, including friends of Israel … to put pressure on the state … [to] not continue with the way [it] acts in the West Bank."
Ms Michaeli said the idea of a two-state solution was evaporating as the world watched on.
"As long as the international community continues to repeat this mantra of a two-state solution, while not taking any action that could enable Palestinian territorial contiguity … we are going to live in a totally unrealistic fantasy."
Sarit Michaeli is uncertain about what the future holds for the West Bank. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
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Donald Trump has revoked the determination that underpinned the country's fight against climate change. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
The Trump administration has revoked a formal scientific finding that has been the central basis for US action to fight climate change.
It is the same finding that led to the determination that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.
The repeal will remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars.
President Donald Trump's administration has revoked a formal scientific finding that has been the central basis for US action to fight climate change.
The Obama-era "endangerment finding" served as the legal basis for federal climate regulations, setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
It determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatened public health and welfare.
Curbs on vehicle emissions have also been axed.
The moves come after a year of implementing a string of regulatory cuts and other actions intended to unfetter fossil fuel development and stymie the rollout of clean energy.
"Under the process just completed by the EPA, we are officially terminating the so-called endangerment finding, a disastrous Obama-era policy that severely damaged the American auto industry and drove up prices for American consumers,"Mr Trump said.
The president announced the repeal alongside EPA administrator Lee Zeldin and White House budget director Russ Vought, who was a key architect of the conservative policy blueprint Project 2025.
Russ Vought (left) and Lee Zeldin (right) announced the ruling alongside Donald Trump. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
Mr Trump has said he believes climate change is a "con job", and has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement, leaving the world's largest historic contributor to global warming out of international efforts.
Former president Barack Obama blasted the move on X, saying without the endangerment finding, "we'll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money".
Mr Zeldin said the Trump administration pursued the most consequential climate policy of the past 15 years, something the agency had avoided during his first term.
"Referred to by some as the holy grail of federal regulatory overreach, the 2009 Obama EPA endangerment finding is now eliminated," he said.
The endangerment finding was first adopted by the US in 2009, and led the EPA to take action under the Clean Air Act of 1963 to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and four other heat-trapping air pollutants from vehicles.
It followed the Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Massachusetts v EPA, which held that the agency had authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
The Environmental Defense Fund says the repeal will end up costing Americans more. ( Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
Its repeal would remove the regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify and comply with federal greenhouse gas emission standards for cars.
The transportation and power sectors are each responsible for about a quarter of US greenhouse gas output, according to EPA figures.
The EPA said the repeal of vehicle emission standards would save US taxpayers $US1.3 trillion ($1.8 trillion), while the prior administration said the rules would have net benefits for consumers through lower fuel costs and other savings.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation did not endorse the action but said "automotive emissions regulations finalised in the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace demand for EVs".
The Environmental Defense Fund said the repeal would end up costing Americans more, despite EPA's statement that climate regulations have driven up costs for consumers.
"Administrator Lee Zeldin has directed EPA to stop protecting the American people from the pollution that's causing worse storms, floods, and skyrocketing insurance costs," EDF president Fred Krupp said.
"This action will only lead to more of this pollution, and that will lead to higher costs and real harms for American families."
Under former president Joe Biden, the EPA aimed to cut passenger-vehicle fleet-wide tailpipe emissions by nearly 50 per cent by 2032.
This compares with 2027 projected levels and forecasts that between 35 per cent and 56 per cent of new vehicles sold between 2030 and 2032 will need to be electric.
Environmental groups have slammed the proposed repeal as a danger to the climate. (Reuters: Kent Nishimura)
The agency estimated that the rules would deliver net annual benefits of $99 billion through 2055.
Consumers were expected to save an average of $6,000 over the lifetime of new vehicles from reduced fuel and maintenance costs.
The coal industry celebrated the announcement, saying it would help stave off retirements of aging coal-fired power plants.
"Utilities have announced plans to retire more than 55,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation over the next five years," America's Power president and CEO Michelle Bloodworth said.
"Reversing these retirement decisions could help offset the need to build new, more expensive electricity sources and prevent the loss of reliability attributes, such as fuel security, that the coal fleet provides."
Legal experts said the policy reversal could lead to a surge in lawsuits known as "public nuisance" actions.
"This may be another classic case where overreach by the Trump administration comes back to bite it," said Robert Percival, a University of Maryland environmental law professor.
Environmental groups have slammed the proposed repeal as a danger to the climate.
Future US administrations seeking to regulate greenhouse gas emissions likely would need to reinstate the endangerment finding.
Several environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Earthjustice, have said they will challenge the reversal in court.
"There'll be a lawsuit brought almost immediately, and we'll see in them in court. And we will win," said David Doniger, senior attorney at the NRDC.
ABC/Wires
