Radio host Alan Jones previously denied allegations of indecent assault aired by local media.

Australia’s veteran broadcaster and former rugby coach Alan Jones has been arrested following an investigation into alleged sexual offences spanning two decades, local media outlets have reported.

Jones, 83, had been a fixture of Australian broadcasting since the mid-1980s, hosting influential shows on Sydney radio stations 2GB and 2UE and the TV network Sky News.

Jones, who is known for his conservative views, last sat behind the microphone in November last year while presenting his show on the streaming news channel ADH TV, which he joined after leaving Sky News in late 2021.

Before entering broadcasting, Jones worked as a teacher before transitioning into politics to serve as a speechwriter and adviser to then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser during the late 1970s and early 80s.

From 1984 to 1998, Jones was the head coach for the Australian men’s rugby union team, leading the side to 86 victories in 102 matches, including a “grand slam” of victories over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

In a statement on Monday, police in the state of New South Wales said detectives from a dedicated child abuse squad arrested an 83-year-old man at a property in the downtown Sydney neighbourhood of Circular Quay.

New South Wales police said the arrest followed the establishment of a strike force in March to investigate alleged “indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents” between 2001 and 2019.

Police did not name the arrested man.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said at a news conference that the arrest followed a “very complex and protracted” investigation.

Jones in December denied allegations of indecent assault and inappropriate touching after the Sydney Morning Herald published an investigation detailing claims that he had used his position to prey on young men.

In a statement at the time, Jones’s lawyer described the allegations as “scandalous, grossly offensive and seriously defamatory of him”.

Veteran Australian broadcaster and former Wallabies coach Alan Jones has been arrested after an investigation into a series of sexual abuse allegations.

New South Wales (NSW) Police said detectives from the Child Abuse Squad took an 83-year-old man into custody at an apartment in Sydney’s Circular Quay early on Monday morning, before searching the property.

A strike force was set up in March to investigate several indecent assaults and sexual touching incidents between 2001 and 2019, they said in a statement.

Mr Jones is one of Australia’s most influential media figures, and has previously denied allegations of abuse, first published by The Sydney Morning Herald in 2023.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said officers had been working “tirelessly” on what has been a “very complex”, “protracted” and “thorough” investigation.

She added that police expect other alleged victims may come forward, as often happens in cases like this.

“There’s no such thing as a matter that’s too old to be investigated.

“There is no better time to come forward than now and you will be listened to, and we will take your matter seriously,” she said.

A former teacher, Mr Jones coached Australia’s national rugby union team between 1984 and 1988, before pivoting to a radio career.

He also, at times, worked as a speechwriter and advisor for Liberal Party figures – including former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser – and launched several failed bids to represent the party in both state and federal politics.

A staple of Sydney airwaves on local station 2GB for decades, Mr Jones juggled those duties with TV commentary gigs before he retired from full time work in 2020 citing health issues.

The broadcaster is a polarising figure, for years boasting one of the nation’s biggest audiences but often courting controversy.

He made headlines in 2012 for suggesting that then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s father had “died of shame”, and in 2019 faced a massive advertiser boycott after saying someone should “shove a sock” down the throat of New Zealand’s leader at the time, Jacinda Ardern.

Mr Jones has also been successfully sued for defamation many times.

Police are expected to update the media on their investigation later on Monday.

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, tackling the issue for the first time in excerpts from an upcoming book.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published on Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.

“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.

The book, by Hernan Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the pope, is entitled Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims towards a Better World. It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 yearlong jubilee, which is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate.

The Argentine pontiff has frequently deplored the number of victims of Israel’s war in Gaza, where the death toll stands at 43,846 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health.

But his call for a probe marks the first time he has publicly used the term “genocide”, albeit without endorsing its use, in the context of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

Israel’s embassy to the Vatican responded later on Sunday with a post on X, quoting its Ambassador Yaron Sideman.

“There was a genocidal massacre on 7 October 2023 of Israeli citizens, and since then, Israel has exercised its right of self-defence against attempts from seven different fronts to kill its citizens,” said the statement.

“Any attempt to call it by any other name is singling out the Jewish State.”

But campaigners and Palestinian supporters have dubbed the Israeli offensive as a “war of vengeance” that has left the Gaza Strip in ruins.

Stepping up criticism

The war in Gaza has triggered several legal cases at international courts in The Hague involving requests for arrest warrants as well as accusations and denials of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

On Thursday, a United Nations Special Committee judged Israel’s conduct of warfare in Gaza “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”, accusing the country of “using starvation as a method of war”.

Its conclusions have already been condemned by Israel’s key backer, the United States.

South Africa brought a genocide case before the International Court of Justice with the support of several countries, including Turkey, Spain and Mexico. In January, the judges at the court ordered Israel to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts. The court has not yet ruled on the core of the case – whether genocide has occurred in Gaza.

Pope Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts, and to stress de-escalation. But he has stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war against Palestinians.

In September, he decried the killings of Palestinian children in Israeli strikes in Gaza. He also sharply criticised Israel’s air strikes in Lebanon as going “beyond morality”.

Francis has not previously described the situation in Gaza as a genocide in public. But last year, he was at the centre of a messy dispute after a meeting with a group of Palestinians at the Vatican, who insisted he had used the word with them in private, while the Vatican said he had not.

Francis has also frequently called for the return of the Israeli captives taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Of the 251 people taken that day, 97 are still held in the Palestinian territory, including 34 the Israeli army says are dead.

On Thursday, the pontiff received 16 former captives who were freed after months of detention in Gaza.

The move comes as Joe Biden heads into his final months in US office, with successor Donald Trump believed to be more favourable towards Russia.

Outgoing United States President Joe Biden will allow Ukraine to use US-provided weapons to strike inside Russia, various news outlets, including Reuters, the Associated Press and the New York Times, have reported.

Three sources, familiar with the matter, including two US officials, told Reuters on Sunday that Ukraine plans to carry out long-range attacks using the weapons in the coming days.

The White House has not commented on the reports, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the missiles would “speak for themselves”.

“Today, many in the media are saying that we have received permission to take appropriate actions,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to Ukrainians. “But strikes are not made with words. Such things are not announced. The missiles will speak for themselves.”

The Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski welcomed the reports, saying that the US was responding to Russia in “a language that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin understands”.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, a Russian lawmaker, said that allowing Ukraine to strike inside Russia with US-supplied missiles would lead to a third world war, according to state news agency TASS. The lawmaker added that the Russian response would be immediate.

The move by Biden comes as he prepares to leave office in two months, with President-elect Donald Trump taking office on January 20.

Trump and members of his incoming administration have indicated that they are more sceptical of heavily supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, and it is unclear whether Trump will reverse the decision to allow Ukraine to use the US-supplied weapons inside Russia.

The Republican leader has promised to end the war quickly, but has not given details as to how he would go about doing so.

Ukraine is expected to use US-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306km), the sources told Reuters, as Kyiv takes advantage of a still-friendly US administration. Zelenskyy had been pressing for months for permission to use the weapons against targets deep inside Russian territory.

Moscow has warned that it would see any move by Washington to loosen restrictions on the use of US-supplied weapons as a major escalation.

The US decision marks a significant shift in policy, and boosts a Ukrainian government that has struggled to stop Russian attacks on cities and its electrical grid.

Biden had long opposed moves to use US weapons against Russia, however, fearing that it would drag the US and its NATO allies into direct conflict with Russia.

But the president appears to have relented, after momentum in the war shifted towards Russia. North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers to support Russia as it attempts to regain territory in Kursk lost to Ukraine.

And Moscow believes that Trump will likely be a more favourable negotiator, and one who could force Kyiv to give up territory Russia currently controls in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Brazil’s first lady has sworn at billionaire Elon Musk at an event ahead of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

While advocating for tougher social media regulation on a panel about disinformation, Janja Lula da Silva appeared to be startled by a loud noise, joking, “I think it’s Elon Musk.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” she went on to say, then swore at the billionaire, who owns Tesla and social media platform X.

Musk, who was picked to lead the Department of Government Efficiency in incoming US President Donald Trump’s administration, has a complicated relationship with Brazil and its left-wing government. X was briefly banned there this year.

He reposted a video of the incident, captioned “lol”.

In another post, Musk added two laughing emojis and wrote: “They are going to lose the next election”, apparently referring to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers Party.

Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered a nationwide ban on X, after it failed to name a legal representative in the country and suspend accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation. The ban was lifted after the platform paid a $5.1m (£3.8m) fine more than a month later.

But Musk is also an ally of Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of discrediting the electoral system after losing in 2022. Despite the eight-year ban stopping him from running in an election, he has declared his intent to run again in the next elections, to be held in 2026.

Bolsonaro, who reposted a screenshot of the video and Musk’s response, said, “We now have another diplomatic problem.”

Leaders of the G20 nations will be meeting for the summit, which starts on Monday.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Chris Wright, a prominent fracking magnate and outspoken climate change sceptic, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming administration.

“As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,’” Trump said in a statement on Saturday.

Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy, has long championed fossil fuel production as the cornerstone of economic growth, aligning closely with Trump’s vision of achieving US “energy dominance”.

“Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible,” Wright posted on X after the announcement. “I am looking forward to getting to work.”

A climate sceptic at the helm

Wright has publicly denied there is a climate crisis. In a past LinkedIn post, he dismissed the idea of a global energy transition, asserting that “there is no climate crisis” and decrying the term “carbon pollution” as misleading.

“There is no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy, all energy sources have impacts on the world both positive and negative,” Wright wrote.

His views are emblematic of Trump’s broader scepticism towards environmental regulations and climate commitments, including the Paris Agreement, which Trump has pledged to abandon once again.

During his election campaign, Trump – who calls climate change a hoax – promised to boost the domestic fossil fuel industry in order to bring down energy prices that have driven inflation.

Wright will devise policy alongside North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, head of the newly created National Energy Council.

“We will DRILL BABY DRILL, expand ALL forms of Energy production to grow our Economy, and create good-paying jobs,” Trump said Friday as he announced Burgum’s appointment.

Wright has repeatedly criticised efforts by outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden to encourage the US’s transition to a low-carbon energy model and has downplayed the importance of solar.

Among his immediate priorities could be lifting the yearlong pause on natural gas export permits implemented under President Biden.

His views put him notably at odds with Trump’s key backer and informal adviser Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla, who started the electric car company and invested heavily in solar.

‘Disastrous mistake’

Harold Hamm, a longtime Trump ally and executive chairman of shale giant Continental Resources, lauded Wright’s expertise, stating that his leadership would be crucial in expanding US fossil fuel production. Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, echoed this sentiment, saying Wright’s industry experience “gives him an important perspective” and will help bolster energy exports to US allies.

But environmental advocates have decried the choice. Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, described Wright as “a champion of dirty fossil fuels” and called his nomination “a disastrous mistake”.

“The Energy Department should be doing all it can to develop and expand the energy sources of the 21st century, not trying to promote the dirty fuels of the last century,” Wong said.

The Department of Energy also oversees nuclear security, environmental cleanup of nuclear sites, and groundbreaking scientific research at its 17 national laboratories. Critics worry that Wright’s appointment could overshadow these critical missions.

Controversial figures

Wright’s nomination is part of a broader pattern in Trump’s Cabinet selections, which feature a mix of seasoned conservatives and controversial figures. Other high-profile picks include Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, for health secretary, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, known for her pro-Kremlin rhetoric, for director of national intelligence.

Pete Hegseth, a pro-Israel Fox News host with limited defence experience, was tapped to lead the Pentagon, while former Congressman Matt Gaetz, once investigated for alleged sex trafficking, was picked for the role of attorney general.

Russia’s exiled opposition has marched through central Berlin in protest against President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

Several thousand supporters joined the march led by Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in February in a Russian jail. Navalny’s supporters say Putin was behind his death but the Kremlin denies this.

People carried the blue and white Russian opposition flag as well as Ukrainian flags, while chanting “no to war” and “Putin is a killer” in Russian.

Members of Russia’s opposition have been exiled since the Kremlin escalated its crackdown on dissent, jailing hundreds – perhaps thousands – of people for their political views.

The opposition says it has three main demands – the “immediate withdrawal” of troops from Ukraine, the trial of Putin as a “war criminal” and the liberation of all political prisoners in Russia.

Ukraine was a major focus of the protest, which finished at the Russian embassy in Berlin.

The Russian opposition has often been accused of failing to appreciate Ukrainian suffering, and failing to do enough to stop the war being waged by their country.

Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation Memorial, who was sentenced to jail in Russia for his anti-war and anti-government statements, held a banner that read: “Victory for Ukraine, Defeat for Putin, Freedom for Russia.”

Orlov now lives in Germany in enforced exile after he was released in a prisoner swap in August. He called for Ukraine’s allies to continue supplying weapons.

“Victory for Putin in Ukraine will conserve his fascist regime in Russia for many years,” he told the BBC.

“More weapons for Ukraine is important, including for the future of Russia – because if Putin wins, then Russia is defeated – that is, the Russia that all of us here dream of and that we want to build.

“Those in Europe who talk about peace at all cost in Ukraine, those prepared to appease the aggressor, do not understand the mine they are laying for the future of Europe itself.”

Speaking outside the Russian embassy, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was also freed in August after spending over two years – 11 months of them in solitary confinement – jailed in Russia, called the embassy “a spy nest of Russia”.

“It will be an embassy again,” he added.

One young IT worker, Anastasia – originally from Kazan in Russia – said she left in March 2022 because she could not stay in a country waging a war that she opposed.

She said it was “impossible to protest in an authoritarian state”, adding that this is why the rally was so crucial.

Jorge Martin finishes third in the season finale in Barcelona to become the first independent rider world champion of the MotoGP era.

Prima Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin has been crowned the 2024 MotoGP world champion after finishing third in the season-ending Solidarity Grand Prix, which was won by his title rival Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati.

Martin led by 19 points heading into the final race of the season on Saturday, and the Spaniard needed to finish in the top nine to clinch the title if polesitter and twice-champion Bagnaia won the race. Gresini Racing’s Marc Marquez finished second.

“I don’t know what to say, I’m completely shocked,” an emotional Martin said after kissing the new panel on his bike which had a golden number one instead of his number 89.

“On the last few laps I couldn’t even ride, I started crying a bit, it was really an emotional race… It’s been a long journey, a lot of crashes and big injuries. So finally we are here.”

Another one for @88jorgemartin! 📌

He is the first Independent rider to become World Champion in the #MotoGP era 🏆#MART1NATOR 🦾 pic.twitter.com/I4mByqnzgb

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) November 17, 2024

Bagnaia had done everything to close the gap in the title race, with victory in the final Grand Prix his 11th of the season, but Martin’s 32 podiums across sprints and races earned him the title by 10 points.

Bagnaia and Martin made superb starts off the line and the title rivals went into turn one first and second. Marquez was third but he dived in on the inside of turn one on the second lap to overtake Martin.

Enea Bastianini immediately began to hound Martin but the Ducati rider did not see Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro behind him as the Spaniard elbowed his way past to move up to fourth in the final race of his career at his home Grand Prix.

The top three maintained their pace over the course of the next few laps, with Martin under no pressure in third place as the experienced Espargaro defended fourth position in an intense battle with Alex Marquez.

Bagnaia eventually cruised to victory – with his future teammate Marc Marquez finishing second – but the Italian and the Ducati garage could only watch as Martin finished third to seal the title and prompt wild celebrations.