A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
First responders at the site of the attack. (Reuters: National Police of Ukraine)
In short:
At least 33 have been killed in a strike on a school being used as a humanitarian aid centre in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the double-tap strike as a "vile terrorist strike".
What's next?
Local search and rescue teams continue to scour the site for about 50 people missing under the rubble.
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskky has described a series of deadly Russian attacks at a school being used as an aid hub in the country's south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, as a "vile terrorist strike".
At least 33 people have been killed, and 50 people remain buried in the rubble following the attack, Mr Zelenskyy said in Berlin on Tuesday, local time.
Earlier, Regina Kharchenko, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, said 27 people were missing.
The school, bordering the frontline of Russia's 4.5-year war with Ukraine, was being used as a shelter.
Ukrainian servicemen open fire to shoot down a Russian drone at the site of the attack. (Reuters)
Mr Zelenskyy said the school was no longer used for classes, but was used to deliver aid to residents in the area every Monday.
He claimed Russian forces could not have been unaware that the school was being used.
"The Russians struck first just as people were arriving — a few aerial bombs," Mr Zelenskyy said.
"Then there was a second strike — more air bombs, this time on the shelter. A vile terrorist strike."
Two members of a rescue crew and four police officers were among those killed, emergency services said, after Russia launched the double-tap strike.
Two rescue workers were among those taken to hospital for treatment.
Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately targeting civilians in the conflict.
The Russian Defence Ministry said the attack had targeted Ukrainian military units in areas around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region.
It said in a statement on Tuesday that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed, while 15 vehicles and an electronic warfare station were also destroyed.
In August, UN monitors said that casualties have risen sharply from last year, adding that more civilians were killed or injured in the war in Ukraine in July than in any month since March 2022.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also condemned the attack.
"Another barbaric and cynical Russian attack," he said.
"Russia's cruelty knows no bounds, and its disregard for human life has no moral justification."
The aftermath of the attack. (Reuters)
Citing the attack, Mr Sybiha urged countries to shun Russian participation in top-level sport following a ruling by sport's highest court ordering the country's reinstatement in major tournaments.
"Russia deserves condemnation, isolation, and consequences, not a return to international respectability," Mr Sybiha wrote on X.
"Its crimes cannot be separated from its flag, its national teams, or its attempts to regain international legitimacy."
Photographs posted online showed smouldering rubble strewn throughout the area.
The attack occurred a day after the expiry of a six-day local ceasefire arranged to bring aid into Oleshky to the south-west in Kherson region and evacuate residents wishing to leave.
US-mediated peace talks are scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10 to 11.
Cellist Charlotte Miles has been announced as the winner of the 2026 ABC Young Performers Awards. (ABC Classic: Cassandra Hannagan)
Charlotte Miles has won the 2026 ABC Young Performers Awards, performing Elgar's Cello Concerto for the competition grand final at the Sydney Opera House on November 3.
Performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Northey, this is the latest award in more than 100 music prizes for the 24-year-old cellist.
The competition opened in February with Miles making it through two competitive rounds to reach the grand final.
Originally from Victoria, Miles has been studying in the Kronberg Academy's professional program in Germany and returned to Australia to compete in the grand final.
Charlotte Miles with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in her winning grand final performance. (ABC Classic: Cassandra Hannagan)
Miles regularly guests with the one of the world's most prestigious orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic and was selected earlier this year to tour with French cellist, Gautier Capuçon.
Speaking to ABC Classic's Genevieve Lang following the performance, Miles said: "I felt really calm out there. I dared to share what I wanted to share with the audience and gave it everything."
Violinist Beatrice Colombis was named runner-up, with pianist Dillon Chan being awarded third place.
23-year-old Colombis performed Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto while Chan, who was the youngest finalist at 14, played Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2.
All finalists receive prizes to further their music careers
The winner takes home a $40,000 cash prize, as well as the opportunity to record a solo studio album under the ABC Classic label.
The runner-up receives a $15,000 cash prize and third place a $5,000 cash prize for furthering their musical careers.
Broadcast live on ABC Classic and hosted by Genevieve Lang, herself a previous competitor, the grand final concert featured each finalist performing a concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The concert was also filmed for broadcast on ABC TV and ABC iview on November 5, with hosts Jeremy Fernandez and Megan Burslem.
The difficult decision was made by adjudicators Aura Go, Sophie Rowell, Adam Szabo and Eliza Shephard, chaired by harpist and arts leader Marshall McGuire.
Previous participants are among some of Australia's most successful musicians today, including pianist Andrea Lam, saxophonist Amy Dickson, pianist Simon Tedeschi, violinist Emily Sun and flautist Eliza Shephard, who is the most recent winner of the competition.
US election nights can be slightly overwhelming, with hundreds of races, thousands of counties, and touchscreens as far as the eye can see.
In a matter of hours, we'll start to learn whether Donald Trump's Republican Party has retained control of the US Congress, or if Democrats are flipping the House of Representatives, the Senate, or both.
All 435 seats in the House are up for election, and Democrats would need a net gain of three, compared to the 2024 election result, to take control there.
Roughly a third of Senate seats are up for grabs, and Democrats would flip that chamber if they can get to 51 seats (a gain of four).
So when will we know a result? As always, it depends on how close things are.
In 2022, it took days to confirm control of the House and Senate. In 2020, it took weeks to know who would control the Senate because of a runoff election in Georgia.
This year, polls are pointing toward a rosier picture for Democrats. If they're correct, things might be clearer faster.
We'll have results across the day on ABC News. Here are a few things to keep in mind when they arrive.
What to watch, hour by hour
US election nights can be slightly overwhelming, with hundreds of races, thousands of counties, and election results touchscreens as far as the eye can see (I'll be at one all day on ABC News Channel).
Here's a quick guide on the most important things to keep an eye on, and when is a good time to take a break and touch some grass (all times below are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time).
The first polls close at 10am in most of Indiana and Kentucky, and the final polls close in Alaska's Aleutian Islands at 5pm.
US Midterms: The key races that will decide control of the Senate
10am
We're starting slow, with polls closing in just two states this hour (and not even the whole states). Check in on Kentucky's 6th district, because if the Democrats gain this seat it could be an early sign the Republicans are going to have a tough day.
11am
Six more states start to report figures, including Georgia, where incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff is the firm favourite.
There's a Republican-held Senate spot in South Carolina that's attracted a bit of chatter in the final weeks of the campaign. This seat was held by the late Lindsey Graham, and now his sister Darline is the candidate. South Carolina is a very red state, but this year's race could be more competitive than usual.
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham died in July. (Reuters: Kenny Holston/The New York Times/Pool)
We should also see a lot of votes in Florida this hour, where there are many competitive House races.
If you're happy with an early lunch, now would be one of the best times of the day to pause for elevenses, because things are about to speed up dramatically. But be quick!
11:30am
This is where counting starts in two key Senate races: Ohio, which appears to be very competitive, and North Carolina, which Democrats appear well-placed to flip. If Republicans appear competitive in this state it could be a long count.
12pm
This is 8pm on the east coast of the USA, and we'll start to see figures from a further 18 states, including in the key Senate races of Michigan, Maine, Kansas, and one of the most discussed races this cycle, Texas.
If the polls are accurate, we may also know if Democrats are flipping enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives (although the party can't officially cross the majority line of 218 seats until polls close on the west coast).
1pm
In this hour we'll start to see returns in Iowa and Nebraska, where Dan Osborn — the main challenger to the Republican incumbent — is a mechanic running as an independent.
2pm
Five more states close this hour, including the Senate races in Idaho and Montana, both of which are expected to go the Republicans' way. By now, counting will be underway in the vast majority of competitive races. If you didn't take up the chance for an early lunch, or fancy another snack, this might be a good time.
3pm
California, the most populous state in the union, ends voting here, and counting begins in its 52 congressional districts. Democrats hold 43 of them, so if they are on track to control the House they will need to wait for races to be called here before officially crossing the majority line of 218.
4pm
Pencils down in Hawaii and Alaska, which will attract more attention than usual this year, with its Senate race of particular interest.
Democrat Mary Peltola is hoping to defeat Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan, who is up against an independent candidate also called Dan Sullivan.
In Alaska, Republican senator Dan Sullivan has had to contend with a challenger with the same name. (AFP: Getty Images/Andrew Harnik)
Everyone else in Alaska and the USA finished voting an hour ago, except for a single precinct in the Aleutian Islands. Fewer than 10,000 people live across the 11 towns and villages in the islands, and in the 2024 election just 154 voters were registered in this final precinct, of which 19 cast a vote.
Typically, Alaskan electoral authorities wait until all polls are closed in the state. In 2024, we got our first votes in Alaska at 5:07pm AEDT.
If Alaska's Senate race is close, it could be a long time before we know the winner. The state uses an Australian-style ranked choice voting system (we call this preferential voting), but preferences are unlikely to be counted for days or even weeks.
Figures can shift during the count
All day the ABC will be reporting live results and calls from news agency Associated Press, which has thousands of staff around the country tabulating figures and calling races.
We need to rely on an agency like AP because the US doesn't have a national body running its elections, as the Australian Electoral Commission does here. Elections are administered and held under rules set at the county and state level.
That means the results can be reported in wildly different ways and need to be interpreted very carefully.
Some states like Florida — which has already started scanning postal votes — will report early votes quickly.
Other states report election day votes first, followed by the postal votes.
Postal voters tend to be more likely to vote Democrat than Republican, which means the totals can shift as different kinds of votes are added. In Florida, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Republicans improve as the count goes on, but in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania the shift could be in the other direction.
Some have tried to argue that these shifts throughout the count are evidence of vote tampering or corruption, but in reality, it is just a result of the order that votes are counted in each state.
There are also some states that just take a very long time. For example, most people vote by mail in California, which has become notorious for taking a long time to count.
Redistricting has moved the starting line
In much of the United States, state politicians control the drawing of electoral boundaries, and since the last election, we've seen an extraordinary amount of redistricting occurring outside the usual 10-year cycle.
It started last year in Texas when, encouraged by Donald Trump, Republicans moved to redistrict the state's congressional boundaries to notionally give themselves another five or so seats.
In response, voters in California approved new Democrat-drawn maps that gave the party around five or so additional seats.
Redistricting has occurred in seven other states since then, mainly improving the map for Republicans. That means that, even if they're having a terrible night nationally, Republicans are expected to gain some seats in the House of Representatives.
Democrats need to gain three seats compared to their 2024 result to flip control in the House, but because of this redistricting their magic number is actually a bit higher than that.
Rubble from the site of the attack in Komyshuvakha, in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine. (X: Volodymyr Zelenskyy)
In short:
At least 24 people are dead and five more injured after multiple strikes on a Ukrainian school being used to distribute humanitarian aid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians.
Russia is yet to publicly comment on the attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of bombing a school being used to distribute humanitarian aid in south-eastern Zaporihzhia region, killing 24 people and injuring five.
The strikes on Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region come as Moscow resumed fighting and attacks on the neighbouring Kherson region after a rare local truce brokered to evacuate the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky.
Komyshuvakha was struck several times since early Monday, Mr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Komyshuvakha was struck several times since Monday and a humanitarian hub was targeted. (National Police of Ukraine in Zaporizhzhia region via Reuters)
He added that the strikes "targeted a school used for humanitarian purposes — people were receiving humanitarian aid there."
"An utterly horrific Russian attack on the settlement of Komyshuvakha in the Zaporizhzhia region," he posted on X.
"Since this morning, the settlement has been hit several times by aerial bombs. The strikes targeted a school used for humanitarian purposes – people were receiving humanitarian aid there.
"After the first aerial bomb strike, there was a double-tap strike with nine more bombs, specifically targeting the shelter where people were taking cover."
He added it was "further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation and no real justice".
Footage posted by Ukrainian emergency services shows a building reduced to piles of smouldering rubble and rescuers working at the site.
Among the killed are "a police officer and two State Emergency Service rescuers", regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram.
"Five people have been wounded. Another 27 are considered missing," Mr Semikin said.
Mr Zelenskyy said the bombed building was where "every week, local residents who had remained in Komyshuvakha received humanitarian aid" and that "the Russians could not have been unaware" of that.
"After the humanitarian operation in Oleshky, there was a moment when the next steps could have shown that progress toward peace was possible. With these killings, Russia is sending an entirely opposite signal: Russia is counting on more killings," he said .
"This is further proof that Russia wants no de-escalation and no real justice," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Mourners attend the funeral of five Palestinians, who were killed in an Israeli strike. (Reuters: Ramadan Abed)
In short:
Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed eight people, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry.
Five police officers were killed in Khan Yunis and three people died in Gaza City.
Local hospitals said they had received the bodies as well as several people wounded.
Israeli strikes killed at least eight Palestinians, including five police officers, in the Gaza Strip in two separate attacks on Sunday, local time, according to medics and the Hamas-run interior ministry.
Medics said three people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
The interior ministry said the five police officers were killed in another strike in western Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.
The Israeli military said it struck several militants in Khan Younis, without giving further information. It did not immediately comment on the Gaza City strike.
Israel, which says the Hamas militant group has been rearming and launching attacks in violation of a year-old ceasefire, has stepped up strikes on the group in recent weeks.
Hamas has denied trying to carry out attacks or rebuild its arsenal and accuses Israel of undermining the Gaza peace deal.
Last year's US-brokered ceasefire calls for eventual reconstruction of the territory.
But little progress has been made as negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or Israel to withdraw its troops, who control about two-thirds of the territory where they have ordered residents out.
Nearly all of the more than 2 million residents live in the remaining third of the enclave among war ruins, mostly in makeshift tents and damaged buildings, still under effective control of Hamas.
At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health officials, while Israel says four soldiers have been killed.
Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, launched after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
