A teenager has been arrested in Australia after boarding a commercial aircraft with a loaded shotgun, police have said.
The 17-year-old boy was overpowered and detained by crew and passengers following the incident at Avalon Airport, about 60km (37 miles) from Melbourne, on Thursday, Victoria Police said.
None of the approximately 160 passengers and crew on the Jetstar Airways plane were hurt.
Police charged the teen with eight offences, including endangering the safe operation of an aircraft and possession of a firearm.
During an appearance by the teen at a juvenile court on Friday, police alleged that he had planted a fake homemade explosive and threatened passengers and crew, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Victoria Police Superintendent Michael Reid told reporters on Thursday that the teen had been overpowered by several passengers.
“No doubt this would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane, and Victoria Police really commend the bravery of the passengers who were able to overpower that male”, Reid said.
Barry Clark, one of the passengers who tackled the suspect, told local media that he had sprung into action after noticing the suspect becoming agitated while arguing with a flight attendant about the firearm.
“I saw the barrel butt, and when I saw the complete gun, I said we’re in trouble here and I saw it toward her chest, and so I thought, well, I’ve got to do something”, Clark said in an interview with Network 10.
“This is all happening in a matter of seconds. So I got up quietly. He had his back to me, the young girl was facing me, and the gun was only visible”, Clark said.
SpaceX’s Starship has exploded shortly after takeoff in the second launch failure this year for Elon Musk’s interplanetary exploration programme.
But Musk’s rocket company was able to successfully return its mammoth first-stage booster to the launchpad following Thursday’s test-flight, catching it in its giant mechanical “chopsticks” for the third time.
SpaceX’s livestream showed the Starship spacecraft spinning uncontrollably in space minutes after its liftoff from the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
“You can see we’ve lost several engines and we’ve lost attitude control for the vehicle”, SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said during the livestream.
“Once you lose enough of those centre engines, you’re going to lose attitude control”, Huot added.
“And so, we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship”.
Footage posted on social media showed fiery debris streaking across the skies of south Florida and the Bahamas as the remnants of the craft reentered the earth’s atmosphere.
The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted flights to four Florida airports, including Miami international airport, due to falling debris.
The aviation regulator , said it had also launched a “mishap investigation” to “determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again”.
The mixed outcome comes after SpaceX’s seventh test-flight in January ended with the mid-flight breakup of the Starship, forcing airlines to divert flights to avoid falling debris.
In a statement after Thursday’s botched launch, SpaceX said the space vehicle had “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly” before contact was lost.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses”, the company said on X.
“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand]the] root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability”.
NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop its Starship for use in its Artemis programme, which aims to return astronauts to the moon this decade.
United States President Donald Trump has signalled he intends to move forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education, despite mixed signals from his administration.
“Well, I want to just do it. I mean, we’re starting the process”, Trump said at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Thursday.
A directive to wind down the Department of Education was expected to be among the orders Trump signed on Thursday.
But in the hours leading up to the Trump’s public appearance in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced reports of an announcement as “more fake news”.
Still, Trump has made no secret of his intention to shutter the Department of Education, a point he revisited on Thursday. Reporters had asked if he had any “second thoughts” that would lead to a delay, something the president refuted.
“ We’re trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools”, Trump said, misrepresenting the department’s functions.
The Department of Education is charged with distributing federal financial aid, conducting education research and ensuring school compliance with anti-discrimination and accessibility policies.
It does not set school curriculums, a decision left to state and local officials.
Still, Trump doubled down on the idea that the department was a barrier to the states ‘ control over their schools.
“If they run their own education, they’re going to do a lot better than somebody sitting in Washington, DC, that couldn’t care less about the pupils out in the Midwest”, he said.
When asked about what would happen to the department’s distribution of federal student loans and grants, Trump proposed assigning that responsibility to other agencies.
“That would be brought into either Treasury or Small Business Administration or Commerce”, Trump said, naming other departments.
“And we’ve actually had that discussion today. I don’t think the Education should be handling the loans. That’s not their business. I think it will be brought into Small Business maybe”.
The US Department of Education building is seen in Washington, DC, on November 18, 2024]Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo]
Rumours of an executive order
Trump has been on a campaign to downsize the federal government, moving to close entire agencies and lay off thousands of workers.
“ We’re cutting it down”, Trump said of the government’s size on Thursday. ” You can’t have that kind of fat. It’s bloat like nobody’s ever seen before”.
The Republican leader has already gutted bureaus like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), closing its headquarters and reducing its staff to a skeleton crew of essential employees.
But no president in recent history has attempted to close a federal department, something that would require congressional approval.
News outlets including The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal obtained drafts of an executive order that offered insight into how Trump would approach such a feat.
The drafts called upon Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a Trump appointee, to take “all necessary steps” to wind down the department to “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law”.
Trump has previously faced criticism for overstepping the boundaries of his executive authority, including by withholding congressionally mandated funds and undermining other entities Congress established, like USAID.
Democrats immediately pounced on the news that the department’s demise was imminent.
At a news conference on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued the department’s closure would irreparably harm access to education, particularly for low-income Americans and students with disabilities.
“ The blast radius of this order will harm nearly every child, every teacher, every family and every community”, Schumer said.
“Taking a chainsaw to the Department of Education and undermining its mission to educate our next generation would be horrible for our schools, our families, the children Secretary McMahon is supposed to serve”.
What are the criticisms?
As with many of the agencies that Trump has sought to dismantle, the Department of Education has long been a target of conservative ire.
In his campaign for a second term last year, Trump echoed right-wing criticisms that the education system had become too “woke” — too influenced by social justice priorities.
In the 2024 Republican Party platform, for instance, Trump and his allies said they would “ensure safe learning environments free from political meddling”.
Part of their strategy has been to close the Department of Education, which enforces policies like Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex.
It also ensures school compliance with federal laws that guarantee equal access to education for students with disabilities.
In addition, the department plays a financial role in the country’s education system, providing approximately 8 percent of the funds for public elementary and secondary schools.
It also distributes federal research grants and funds to cover student financial assistance at colleges and universities. Overall, the Department of Education wields approximately $102bn, representing 0.9 percent of the overall federal budget for 2025.
But Trump has outlined a vision where the Department of Education’s responsibilities are reassigned to individual states.
“We want to move education back to the states, where it belongs”, Trump said at the first cabinet meeting of his second term on February 26. “Iowa should have education. Indiana should run their own education”.
But politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned that redistributing the department’s tasks would simply increase the tax burden on individual states — particularly rural ones with fewer resources to draw from.
“Do we need to make the Department of Education more efficient? I believe we do. Do we need to destroy it and wreak havoc for working-class families across this country? Absolutely not”, Sanders said in a news conference on Thursday.
ABC News reported that the Trump administration scuttled its planned executive order on Thursday over questions about potential public backlash.
The legality of Trump’s order
The Department of Education has roots going back to the 19th century, under President Andrew Jackson — one of Trump’s presidential idols.
But the modern-day entity started to take shape in the 20th century, as the federal government started to take a more assertive role in public education, in part due to civil rights issues.
In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education as it is known today, in order to unite various federal programmes under the same umbrella. Its leader has been a cabinet-level post ever since.
But for just as long, there has been conservative pushback towards the department, as a potential hindrance to states ‘ rights.
In addition to pushing for the department’s closure, Trump has also sought to reshape US education in other ways.
He and Secretary McMahon are vocal supporters of “school choice” policies that would allow parents to use taxpayer funds — ordinarily earmarked for public education — to pay for private schools.
Trump has also said his administration is working to roll back what he believes are ideologically driven ideas around racial and gender equality in education.
But Trump himself has not been shy about conditioning federal support on adherence to his political priorities.
On Tuesday, for example, Trump wrote on social media that universities must crack down on students who participate in “illegal protests” or face consequences, including a halt in federal funding.
Gunmen loyal to deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 15 security personnel in ambushes in the coastal province of Latakia, a security source told Al Jazeera.
The attacks took place on Thursday near the town of Jableh in the Latakia countryside, part of the coastal area which forms the heartland of the Alawite minority sect to which the al-Assad family belongs.
A Syrian security source told the Al Jazeera Arabic network that 15 security personnel were killed in “various armed ambushes”.
“The Syrian state will impose its authority on all groups outside the law and will not allow security to be threatened”, said the source.
Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, said tensions were running high after the attacks.
“Since the fall of the Assad regime three months ago, this is perhaps one of the biggest security challenges that the new government is facing”, he said.
The central government had sent reinforcements consisting of “dozens and dozens of military vehicles” to the city of Latakia from several governorates, including Hama, Homs and Idlib, he said.
Soon after the attack, a video was released by an Assad-era commander, saying that a resistance group called the “coastal shield regiment” had been formed against the new government, said Serdar.
The security director of Latakia province had earlier told the Syrian state news agency SANA that security forces were clashing in the Latakia countryside with armed groups loyal to Assad-era special forces commander Suhail al-Hassan.
Security forces in Latakia announced that the situation was now under control and that several of the attackers had been killed, with “many more captured”, said Serdar. A curfew was also announced in the coastal city of Tartous.
A 26-year-old man who murdered three women in a crossbow and stabbing attack was found guilty of raping one of them, his ex-girlfriend, by a British court.
Kyle Clifford had pleaded guilty in January to the murder of two daughters of a BBC sports commentator and their mother in their home in Bushey, northwest of London in July 2024.
The killings had sparked a manhunt for Clifford, who was found hours later injured in a cemetery in north London.
A jury at Cambridge Crown Court in eastern England on Thursday found Clifford guilty of raping one of the daughters, his ex-girlfriend Louise Hunt, 25, before he killed her. His sentencing for all the crimes is expected on Tuesday.
Clifford admitted murdering Carol Hunt, 61, the wife of horseracing commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters, Louise and Hannah, 28.
He had pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, one of false imprisonment, and two of possessing offensive weapons, but denied raping Louise.
In the resulting trial, the court heard that after he stabbed Carol Hunt to death, Clifford “lay in wait” for an hour for Louise, before tying, raping and then killing her with a crossbow.
He then killed Hannah when she returned home from work.
The prosecution accused Clifford, a former soldier, of committing a “violent, sexual act of spite”.
He had become “enraged” after Louise ended their 18-month relationship, the court heard, and had “carefully planned” the attack.
According to the prosecution, Clifford searched for a podcast by misogynistic social media influencer Andrew Tate less than 24 hours before the killings.
The prosecution said the murders were fuelled by the “violent misogyny promoted” by Tate.
