Iran and the U.S. swapped five detainees each on Monday after Qatar mediated a deal that also saw $6 billion of Tehran's funds unfrozen. Five Americans with dual nationality left Tehran for Doha, before heading to the U.S.

Doha

Iran, U.S clinch rare detainee swap

Iran and the United States swapped five detainees each on Monday, thanks to a Doha broker deal between the arch foes. The move also saw $6 billion of Tehran's funds unfrozen. But how did this come to be, what does the deal look like and what happens next? A Reuters source says the swap was triggered after Qatar confirmed that the frozen funds have been transferred to bank accounts in Doha. Under the deal, five Americans with dual nationality left Tehran for Doha before heading to the US. In return, five Iranians held in the US have been released. The detained Iranian-Americans who will be allowed to leave Iran include two businessmen, 51-year-old Siamak Namazi and 59-year-old Imad Shaghi, and 67-year-old environmentalist Murad Tabaz, who also has British nationality. The other two prisoners have not been identified. Iran's mission to the United Nations says the five Iranians to be released by the US are Murad Moin Ansari, Reza Sarhang Por Khafrani, Amin Hassanzadeh, Kambiz Attar Khashani and Kaveh Afrasiabi. The agreement was born out of months of diplomatic contacts, secret talks and legal manoeuvring. Qatar has been at the heart of negotiations throughout, sources and officials say. Since March 2022, Doha has hosted several rounds of indirect clandestine meetings between Tehran and Washington. Early talks focused heavily on Iran's nuclear dispute with the US. But over time, shifted to detainees, as negotiators realised nuclear discussions would lead nowhere due to their complexity. In September, Washington waived sanctions to allow the transfer of Iran's funds to Qatari banks. Doha will now take on a monitoring role to ensure Iran's rulers spend the funds on non-sanctioned goods. Iran's funds have been frozen in South Korea, normally one of Iran's largest oil customers, after US sanctions on the Islamic Republic were hardened in 2018. Today I want to update the world on our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The move came after then-US President Donald Trump's decision to ditch Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers. Hostility to the US has always been a rallying point for Iran's clerical establishment. That's despite its suffering political isolation and sanctions-related economic hardship since Washington's severed ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could likely tolerate some limited civility between Iran and the US amid growing public anger over severe economic challenges. Mediterranean insiders say normalising ties with Washington would likely be a step too far. Clerical leaders fear improved relations could weaken the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic and its influence in the region, as well as harming Khamenei's domestic authority. The transfer of Iran's funds has drawn Republican criticism that US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is in effect paying ransom for US citizens. The White House has defended the deal. Whether it leads to future agreements regarding Iran's nuclear standoff with the US remains unclear.

Pope Francis has suggested in a letter to five conservative cardinals that there could be ways to bless same-sex unions within Catholicism and suggests that such blessings could be studied if they are not confused with sacramental marriage.

Città del Vaticano

Pope says Catholic Church could bless same-sex marriages

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in an extraordinary showdown. Those who voted him out include Democrats and members of his own party.

Washington

McCarthy ousted as U.S House Speaker

Thai police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing two foreigners and wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall, the latest high-profile gun violence to rock the country in recent years.

Bangkok

Tourists killed in Thailand mall shooting, teen arrested

Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial got underway with jury selection on Tuesday (October 3), nearly a year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's collapse shocked markets and tattered his reputation. 

New York

Bankman-Fried Trial

Bankman-Fried's fraud trial begins in New York

The United Nations Security Council has authorized the deployment of a multi-national security force to Haiti. It's designed to help the Haitian police battle heavily armed gangs that have become increasingly powerful there. It's not clear when the force will arrive, or who, other than Kenya, will contribute to it.

UN approves international force to aid Haiti

U.S. House Republican Matt Gaetz has filed a motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Gaetz and other hardline Republicans were angered that McCarthy relied on votes from the Democrats to pass a last-minute temporary deal to avert a government shutdown.

Republican files motion to oust U.S House Speaker

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting attack at a shopping mall in Thailand's capital Bangkok. The Prime Minister said police arrested the suspected gunman. Police said the suspect is 14 years old.

Three killed in Bangkok mall shooting

It's day two of the Conservative Party conference in the United Kingdom and disagreements over the economy have taken centre stage. The government has ruled out pre-election tax cuts despite the urging of some from the party fringes.

Manchester

UK Tories rule out pre-election tax cuts

Thirty-one-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried heads to trial in New York in what prosecutors say is one of the largest fraud cases in U.S history. He is accused of misusing money made from his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, ultimately leading to its collapse.

Crypto on trial, as Sam Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges

Happening before the cameras, the world saw a combative Trump at a civil fraud trial in New York. The state's attorney general is accusing him of inflating the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure massive loans.

Trump Arrest

Trump 'combative' during first day of fraud NYC trial

The scientists who provided the foundational research that lead to mRNA vaccines — the first vaccines against COVID-19 — have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Philadelphia

Nobel prize to scientists who laid groundwork for COVID vaccines

Locals have told of the frantic moments when they rushed to help a woman who'd been attacked by a shark off the jetty at Beachport in the state's south east. The woman is in a stable condition in hospital with wounds to her foot, leg and hand.

Beachport

Woman seriously injured in SA shark attack

The property market is continuing to soar with house prices set to hit a new record high. It's putting home ownership further out of reach for first homebuyers.

Adelaide

House prices continue to rise, hit record highs

EU ministers convened in Kyiv on Monday in their first ever meeting outside the bloc. They marked their support for Ukraine after both a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

Kyiv brushes off U.S, Slovakia wobbles in EU visit

Moderate U.S. Republicans and Democrats approved a spending deal just hours before a U.S. government shutdown deadline on Saturday. The bill, presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has further infuriated hardline Republicans already seeking to push him from his post.

Speaker McCarthy risked his job to avoid shutdown

U.S. President Joe Biden is pressing congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, after the stopgap-funding bill that kept the government open left aid to the country out. 

Biden calls on Republicans to back Ukraine spending bill

Early voting for the Voice to Parliament referendum begins in half of Australia's states and territories today, with the remaining jurisdictions to follow tomorrow. It's less than two weeks before the country's first referendum in almost 25 years. 

Canberra

Voice to Parliament

Voice referendum pre-polling underway

More than a dozen people have been killed in a fire in adjoining nightclubs in Murcia in southeast Spain, emergency services have confirmed, adding that rescuers were still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze.

Murcia

Nightclub fire in Murcia kills at least 13 people, more missing

In Ukraine, new legislation goes into effect on Sunday mandating women with medical backgrounds to register for military service. The country is preparing for what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is describing as 'a long war'. 

Ukraine mandates military service for female medical personnel

Pakistani security forces have cracked down on Pakistan Taliban armed group, also known by the acronym TTP. The group is blamed for rising violence in the country. It includes remnants of al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), and has intensified attacks recently.

Islamabad

Pakistan: Taliban crackdown after terror blast

Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female member of the United States Senate, has died at the age of 90.

Dianne Feinstein: Longest-serving woman in U.S senate dies

A United Nations spokesperson says the UN is sending a humanitarian team to Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend as more than 100,000 refugees have now arrived in Armenia from neighbouring Nagorno-Karabakh. It comes after Azerbaijan retook control of the enclave in a military offensive.

Baku

More than 100,000 flee Nagorno-Karabakh region

The consumer and competition watchdog is calling for a major overhaul of Australia's childcare system. A draft report by the ACCC has found Australian parents pay almost twice the OECD average for childcare despite large government subsidies for the sector. 

ACCC calls for enforceable caps on childcare fees

The United Nations is sending a mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh region- its first access there in nearly 30 years. The mission is to identify the humanitarian needs of residents there.

Zangilan

Fears 100,000 refugees fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh

Ethnic Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh — 90,000 of them and counting — just keep coming. They mourn the lives they left behind, traumatized by the conflict they're fleeing in the contested region that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

Goris

UN mission to visit Nagorno-Karabakh after military offensive

A Nevada grand jury indicted Duane (Keefe D) Davis in the fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Davis, who was a witness to the Las Vegas shooting, was arrested 27 years after the hip-hop icon was killed.

Los Angeles

Witness to Tupac Shakur's killing indicted for murder

The New York City area is under a state of emergency after the remnants of tropical storm Ophelia dumped 15 centimetres of rain, flooding roads and subway tunnels.