The five Republican candidates vying for the party's presidential nomination faced off in their third debate Wednesday, focusing on blaming Donald Trump for the GOP's latest election embarrassment and their individual differences on foreign policy.

Miami

GOP rivals jab Trump, talk foreign policy in third debate

Everybody wants to talk about President Trump. He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he should get another chance. Anybody who's going to be spending the next year and a half of their life focusing on keeping themselves out of jail and courtrooms cannot lead this party or this country. I don't think he's the right president now. 2024 is our final battle. Stand with me in the fight. We will finish the job that we started. Republican candidates taking jabs at former President Donald Trump at the third Republican debate hosted by NBC. Trump skipped the debate, and as you could see just there, he held his own rally in Miami. Joining us now from Washington is Zach Cohen of Bloomberg government. Zach, earlier in some of these campaigns during the primary, there had been this hesitancy to really go guns a-blazing after Donald Trump. Is that all done now? Did candidates really press into him? Certainly, there were moments where candidates tried to make the case that they were, one, best positioned to be the alternative to Donald Trump in this Republican primary. As New Jersey Governor Chris Christie pointed out, he faces a number of criminal indictments that he'll be facing over the next couple of months. But there were also efforts to try to show Republican primary voters that they were best prepared to replace Donald Trump as the front-runner for the Republican Party. You had Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying it's time to move on. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley saying he was a good president for the time when he was elected in 2016, but needs to find somebody else for the 2024 nomination. This comes right on the heels of a number of Republican losses in places like Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia in Tuesday's elections, where Republicans lost a string of battles, especially when it came to abortion rights. And Republicans, I think the Democrats, And so they're looking for a change of direction, and a lot of them are looking to place the blame on Donald Trump as the leader of the party at this juncture. Zach, how did they do on global foreign policy? I look at some of the comments. They were just stomming. Ramaswamy calling Nikki Haley a Dick Cheney in three-inch heels, and she called him scum. So obviously the intellectual debate about foreign policy was a big one. And I think that's a big part of what's going on right now. And I think that's a big part of what's going on right now. So obviously the intellectual debate about foreign policy was high. Well, certainly that was, I think, one of the most substantive differences, honestly, between the candidates. You had Haley and Christie on one side arguing in favor of a robust defense of Ukraine in its attempt to rebut the Russian invasion that's been going on for over a year now. And then you had Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, trying to make the case that, no, that money is better spent on things like securing the southern border with Mexico. And Senator Tim Scott, the fifth candidate on the debate stage, who's voted for a number of these packages, making the case that, well, we probably need to audit where the funds are going first before we consider more aid. And so that was probably the most substantive policy difference between these candidates who will determine whether Ukraine gets additional aid if, in fact, Republicans win full control of not just the White House, but of Congress.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, making one of them the first treatment in the United States based on the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene editing technology.

Maryland

US approves two gene therapies for sickle cell disease

Israel bombing of the Gaza Strip has intensified in an expanded phase of its war against Hamas. This is after the United States wielded its U.N. Security Council veto to shield its ally from a global demand for a ceasefire.

Jerusalem

Israel-Gaza War

Intensified fighting in Gaza as U.S. vetoes ceasefire

EU lawmakers and policymakers have reached a deal on rules regulating the use of artificial intelligence, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on the X social platform.

Brussels

Rise of AI

EU reaches landmark deal to regulate AI threat

The U.S. has vetoed an emergency resolution at the UN security council — triggered by the secretary-general with a rarely-used power to force a vote — for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to allow more aid into the area.

New York

United States vetoes UN vote on immediate Gaza ceasefire

Israel's military says it has struck 450 targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, roughly double the figure it's typically reported since the end of the truce with Hamas. It marks a new expansion of the war.

Sderot

Israel ramps up airstrikes on Gaza targets amid new phase

Russians and Belarusians who qualify in their sport for the Paris 2024 Olympics can take part as neutrals without flags, emblems or anthems at the event next year, the International Olympic Committee has ruled.

Paris

IOC rules Russian athletes can compete at Paris Olympics

Cyclone preparations are underway in north Queensland. Communities in North Queensland are bracing for Category Four Jasper to approach mainland Queensland by mid-next week.

Townsville City

North Queensland braces for Category Four cyclone

The Hamas-run health ministry reported 40 dead in strikes near Gaza City on Friday, and dozens more in Jabalia and the main southern city of Khan Yunis. So far, the fighting in the Palestinian enclave has left 17,487 people dead, according to the ministry's latest published figures. 

Hamas health ministry says over 17,000 dead in Gaza

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday told soldiers who had fought in Ukraine that he would run for the top job again in the 2024 election - a move that will allow the former KGB spy to stay in power until at least 2030. 

Moscow

Ukraine Invasion

Russia's Putin tells soldiers he will run for president again

Ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest public criticism of Israel's conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza, said there was a gap between the government's declared intentions to protect civilians and the casualties.

Washington

U.S criticizes Israel over Gaza civilian toll

2023 has been declared the hottest year in recorded history a month earlier than scientists would usually confirm the evidence. Temperatures are now nudging one and a half degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, giving the UN climate talks in Dubai a heightened sense of priority.

Council of the City of Sydney

Climate Crisis

Scientists confirm 2023 is the hottest year on record

The Department of Justice filed new criminal charges against U.S. President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, indicting him for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle. 

Delaware

Hunter Biden hit with new charges for tax evasion

Two months since the initial Hamas attack on southern Israel, doctors in Gaza are treating many times the number of patients they are equipped to handle, and a UN official says there is no safe place for humanitarian operations to continue.

Israel pushes deeper south as war with Hamas passes 2 months

Emergency authorities are on alert as severe Tropical Cyclone Jasper intensifies in the Coral Sea. The category four system is continuing its gradual march towards the North Queensland coast, but its exact path remains uncertain.

Tropical Cyclone Jasper strengthens off Queensland coast

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited Greece and met with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday. The two leaders agreed to reboot their relations, establishing a roadmap designed to usher in a new era of closer ties between the two NATO allies but historical foes. 

Athens

Historic foes Greece and Turkey agree to turn page

Italy has officially informed China that it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), dismissing fears the decision could sour relations and damage the Italian economy, government sources said. 

Rome

Italy to leave China's Belt and Road Initiative

Legislation that would provide new security assistance for Ukraine and Israel was blocked in the U.S. Senate as Republicans demanded tougher measures to control immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico. 

Ukraine aid bill blocked in U.S Senate

Ukraine is having trouble getting other economic and humanitarian assistance delivered as aid from the U.S. is stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is shoring up support from his allies in the Middle East.

Riyadh

Putin visits Middle East as Ukraine's foreign aid dwindles

The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has invoked his most powerful diplomatic tool to try to stop the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. In the letter, Guterres calls for the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appeals for a ceasefire to be declared in Gaza.



UN chief invokes article 99 on Gaza in rare move

Israeli forces declare a disputed safe zone along Gaza's southern coast, lacking humanitarian aid and raising concerns.

Palestinians flee to Al Mawasi as Israel expands offensive

Another man who was recently released from immigration detention has been charged by police. His capture in Melbourne comes as Federal Parliament is on the brink of passing laws to have some former detainees put back behind bars.

Canberra

Detainee released after High Court ruling arrested

The first survivor has been pulled out alive after last Friday's landslide in Zambia that flooded a copper mine. It trapped at least 25 people who were working there. The rescue mission for the others continues.

Lusaka

First survivor pulled out of Zambia mine after landslide

Members of the Iranian security forces raped and used other forms of sexual violence against women and men detained in the crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted from September 2022, Amnesty International said Wednesday. 

Tehran

Report reveals detained protesters in Iran raped, assaulted

Several Republican senators walked out of a classified briefing on Ukraine as it descended into a row over the border crisis, after President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly canceled a video link appearance to appeal for continued US funding. 

Kyiv

Zelensky cancels U.S Senate briefing amid funding row

Israeli ground forces are heading south toward the city of Khan Younis as the hospital system in the area is collapsing. Red Cross officials paid a visit to Gaza and called for de-escalation in the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli ground forces enter Gaza's Khan Younis

The US Department of State has said that it will impose visa restrictions on Israeli settlers involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the occupied West Bank. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the move on Tuesday.

U.S announces visa bans for Israelis linked to West Bank attacks

Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson has vowed to publicly release thousands of hours of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot footage with one caveat: The faces of participants will be blurred.

U.S House Speaker to release Capitol riot footage 

Six Ukrainian children taken to Russia after Moscow's invasion last year - will be reunited with their families. It's the result of a new round of negotiations by Qatari mediators.


Ukrainian children taken to Russia to be released

Britain signed a new treaty with Rwanda on Tuesday which it said would overcome a court decision blocking its plan to deport asylum seekers to the East African country, a ruling that dealt a huge blow to the government's immigration policy. 

Kigali

U.K minister signs new Rwanda migration treaty

This year's COP28 climate summit in Dubai has been controversial in part because its president, Sultan al-Jaber, is the head of the UAE national oil company. Activists protested outside the summit on Tuesday over the presence of the fossil fuel industry and "a lot of green washing."