This is The Loop, your quick catch-up for Tuesday morning's news — as it happened.
Key events
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Live updates
That's it for The Loop today
By Felicity Ripper
Thanks for joining us as we wrapped up the news hapenning around the world this morning.
If you're just catching up, here's a bit of what we covered:
Coming up: NSW Premier-elect to be sworn in
By Felicity Ripper
Premier-elect Chris Minns says voters will expect results from their new government and says his ministers are ready to start work.
Mr Minns will be sworn in as the state's 47th Premier today, along with an interim ministry comprising the Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Health Minister and Transport Minister.
The new government will likely have to wait until counting concludes in the state election before a full cabinet can be sworn in.
Mr Minns has told ABC Radio Sydney one of the interim ministry's key priorities will be to lift the wages cap for frontline essential workers.
US Senate votes against force in Iraq
By Felicity Ripper
The US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to pass through legislation scrapping the authority to use force in Iraq.
The 'Iraq War Resolution' was hastily passed through Congress in 2002, allowing then-president George W Bush to launch the War in Iraq the following year.
Congress has been discussing scrapping the resolution, in a bid to re-examine the process behind sending troops into combat.
A landslide in Ecuador has killed at least seven
By Felicity Ripper
A landslide triggered by heavy rains in Ecuador's Andean region killed at least seven people, with 23 people hurt and almost 50 missing, the country's risk agency says.
The agency says that 32 people were rescued after a large amount of earth swept down on parts of the city of Alausi on Sunday night, local time.
Its statement on Twitter hiked the number of missing to 46, from seven in its previous report.
In all, 500 people and 163 houses were affected, the agency said.
"We have had to witness a terrible tragedy," Transport Minister Dario Herrera told Reuters.
"The first thing is to attend to and evacuate people from the houses."
Rescue workers are searching for survivors in the rubble, aided by dogs.
Hungary approves Finland's NATO bid
By Felicity Ripper
Hungary's parliament has voted by a large majority to approve Finland's application to join NATO.
Sweden and Finland both made their bids to join the defence bloc following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and their applications needs to be ratified by all 30 members.
Turkiye remains the only country that hasn't approved their membership bid, and has previously expressed concerns about Kurdish militants taking refuge in Sweden.
An orphaned dolphin is thriving in Florida
By Felicity Ripper
Here's some good news!
Ranger, a rescued juvenile dolphin airlifted to the Florida Keys one year ago from Texas, is thriving and socialising with other dolphins at Dolphin Research Center.
Ranger was rescued in June 2021 after being discovered stranded in waters around Goose Island State Park in Texas suffering from an underlying respiratory infection and dehydration.
Found near his dead mother, the dolphin was taken to the Texas State Aquarium Wildlife Rescue Center for care.
At just two years old, he was deemed too young to forage and survive in the wild, and the National Marine Fisheries Service selected DRC as his permanent home.
“Dolphins are very social; they live in a family, they depend on that family even to learn how to catch fish,” says Linda Erb, DRC’s vice president of animal care and training.
“Without a mom, without a family, this little guy would have starved — he would not have known how to be a wild dolphin.”
NSW heads for a hung parliament
By Felicity Ripper
New South Wales appears destined for a hung parliament, with Labor expected to fall short of 47 seats it needs to win a majority.
Vote counting in the NSW election is continuing, and there's been plenty of developments overnight.
You can read the latest in our blog:
Netanyahu suspends judicial overhaul after Israelis protest
By Felicity Ripper
Yesterday, we covered the the mass prtests across Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed his defence minister who had urged the government to halt a highly-contested plan to overhaul the judicial system.
Mr Netanyahu has just announced he has paused his signature plan.
The plans by his nationalist religious coalition, to hand control over judicial appointments to the executive while giving parliament the power to overturn Supreme Court rulings, ignited one of the biggest internal crises in Israeli history.
Announcing his decision late on Monday, local time, to suspend the plans until parliament returns after the break for the Passover holiday and Independence Day next month, Mr Netanyahu said the crisis required all sides to act responsibly.
"Israeli society is on a dangerous collision course. We are in the midst of a crisis that is endangering the basic unity between us," he says.
As he made the address, huge crowds had gathered in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, including a large counter-demonstration by right-wing supporters of the overhaul.
Police identify Nashville school shooter as former student
By Felicity Ripper
Police say the suspect in the school shooting was 28-year-old Audrey Hale.
The Nashville Police Chief John Drake has just given an update.
He says it was a targeted attack and Hale gained entry to the school by shooting through a door.
He says the suspect had maps and drawings of the school.
Zelenskyy says no safety until Russia leaves Zaporizhzhia
By Felicity Ripper
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency that safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station could not be guaranteed until Russian troops left the facility.
The president says he met Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the Dnipro hydroelectric power station, northeast of the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Russian troops occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station, in the early weeks of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and each side has repeatedly accused the other of shelling the facility.
Zelenskyy was quoted as telling Grossi that staff at the Zaporizhzhia plant were under constant pressure from Russian occupying forces, who he said were failing to uphold safety rules and interfering in technological processes.
"Without an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and staff from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and adjacent areas, any initiatives on restoring nuclear safety and security are doomed to failure," Zelenskyy says.
John Pesutto responds to Moira Deeming's online comments after suspension
By Felicity Ripper
Victorian Liberal Opposition Leader John Pesutto isn't ruling out further punishment for suspended MP Moira Deeming after she appeared to walk back her condemnation for organisers of an alleged anti-transgender rights rally.
The upper house MP has been handed a nine-month suspension over her involvement in the rally which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
The Liberal leader says information provided by Ms Deeming on Monday morning offered enough condemnation of behaviour at the rally to make expulsion unnecessary.
But last night in a Twitter post, Ms Deeming says she never condemned the event's organisers to her party.
Mr Pesutto says it will be investigated.
"If that's the case and there's anything less than the faithful observance of what was put to the party room and what was unanimously agreed to then that would have serious consequences," he says.
He told ABC's News Breakfast this morning that under his leadership, he wants to ensure the party is "inclusive and welcoming".
'It's sick': Biden speaks on the school shooting
By Felicity Ripper
Here's the video of US President Joe Biden speaking about the school shooting.
A Manhattan grand jury is back at work in the Trump probe
By Felicity Ripper
A pivotal figure in the hush money payment investigation of Donald Trump was seen Monday leaving the Manhattan building where a grand jury has been meeting for months, though there was still no word on when the panel might vote on a possible indictment.
David Pecker, a longtime Trump friend, was also seen weeks ago at the same building, suggesting that his testimony could be key as prosecutors continue to push toward potential criminal charges of the ex-president.
This was the first time the panel was hearing testimony in the Trump probe since last Monday, when a witness favorable to the ex-president appeared before the grand jury.
The jurors did not meet at all on Wednesday, one of the days when they ordinarily convene, and heard other matters on Thursday.
The grand jury is now back on Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss secretive proceedings.
The ex-president is being investigated over payments during his 2016 campaign to two women who alleged affairs or sexual encounters with him.
Trump denies being involved with either of the women, the porn actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal.
Gwyneth Paltrow accuser calls Utah ski crash ‘serious smack’
By Felicity Ripper
The man suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 skiing collision at one of the most upscale resorts in North America has taken the stand, saying he was rammed into from behind and sent “absolutely flying".
The trial in Utah hinges on who crashed into who: Paltrow testified days earlier that Terry Sanderson, a retired 76-year-old optometrist, veered into her back.
He says the opposite, and that the collision broke four ribs and caused post-concussion symptoms that changed his personality and strained his family relationships.
Beyond questions of skiing etiquette, Paltrow’s attorneys have argued the lawsuit is an attempt by an “obsessed” man to exploit the actor’s wealth.
On Monday, Mr Sanderson recalled a screaming woman skiing into him and hitting him between the shoulder blades with her fists and poles as he tried to shield his head.
“All I saw was a whole lot of snow. And I didn’t see the sky, but I was flying,” Sanderson said, calling it “a serious smack.”
Water found on the Moon stored in glass beads
By Felicity Ripper
Glass beads on the surface of the Moon could provide a readily accessible source of water for future missions, a new study suggests.
An international team analysed lunar glass in soil samples brought to Earth by the Chinese Chang'e-5 mission.
The researchers, led by Huicun He of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimate between 300 billion and nearly 300 trillion kilograms of water is held in tiny glass beads strewn across the Moon.
According to their analysis, published today in Nature Geoscience, water forms from hydrogen delivered in thestream of charged particles flowing from the Sun called thesolar wind.
"These findings indicate that lunar soils contain a much higher amount of solar wind-derived water than previously thought," they wrote.
Read more here:
Biden calls for assault weapons ban after Nashville shooting
By Felicity Ripper
Three adults and three children have died in a shooting at a private Christian primary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
On Monday, local time, a suspect with two assault-type rifles and a pistol was killed by police during a confrontation after the violence at The Covenant School.
US President Joe Biden has now called on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, the White House says.
"We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart,” Mr Biden says.
"I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban."
You can read about the shooting here:
Prince Harry and Elton John appear in court for a lawsuit against a newspaper publisher
By Felicity Ripper
Britain's Prince Harry and singer Elton John have made a surprise appearance at London's High Court as they and five others began a lawsuit against the publisher of the UK Daily Mail paper over years of alleged phone-tapping and privacy breaches.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, has brought a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers (ANL), along with John, and his husband David Furnish, as well as actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost.
They allege they were victims of "numerous unlawful acts" carried out by journalists or private investigators working on behalf of ANL titles the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
These included hacking mobile phone messages, bugging calls, getting private information such as medical records by deception or "blagging", and "commissioning the breaking and entry into private property", their lawyer David Sherborne says.
The alleged activity ran from 1993 to 2011, and even up to 2018.
ANL, which is seeking to have the case thrown out, said in a statement it categorically denied the allegations and would vigorously defend them if necessary.
One dead after protests in Kenya
By Felicity Ripper
Kenyan police have fired teargas and water cannons at stone-throwing supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga during a second week of protests against the government and high food prices, with one person shot dead in the western city of Kisumu.
The clashes broke out as Mr Odinga's convoy passed through the Kawangware neighbourhood in the capital Nairobi.
Hundreds of supporters had gathered around the convoy, shouting "Ruto must go," in reference to President William Ruto.
Mr Odinga, who lost to Mr Ruto in last August's election, is seeking to channel frustrations about stubborn inflation into a durable movement against the president.
He has vowed to press ahead with biweekly protests - every Monday and Thursday - despite police banning the demonstrations.
In Kisumu, close to Mr Odinga's ancestral home, one person was shot dead during the protests, a worker at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital says.
It's not clear who was responsible for the shooting.
One more thing: A dusty, hidden painting has turns out to be a Brueghel 'masterpiece'
By Felicity Ripper
A rediscovered painting of Flemish 17th-century painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger, for years hidden in a family house, will be presented for auction in Paris on Tuesday and is expected to fetch 600,000 ($AU974,400) to 800,000 euros.
The painting L'Avocat du village is one of Brueghel's largest known works, measuring 112cm high and 184cm wide, and was unknown in the art world as the most recent generation of the family who had possessed it since the 1900s thought it was fake.
The family, who wishes to remain unknown, had asked Malo de Lussac of auctioneers Daguerre Val de Loire to estimate the value of their house but instead discovered a masterpiece.
"I found this painting [in the house], behind a door in the television room," de Lussac told Reuters, calling it one of the biggest surprises in his career.
