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An engine failure forced pilots on a Quantas flight to make an emergency landing shortly after it took from an airport in Sydney, Australia . Passengers heard a loud bang shortly after flight 520 from Sydney to Brisbane left the runway on Friday afternoon, the airline said in a statement, adding that it was not an explosion. Engineers concluded after a preliminary inspection and confirmed the Boeing 737 jet suffered a contained engine failure, the statement added. “A really jolting shudder went through the plane,” passenger Mark Willacy, a journalist with the Australian broadcaster ABC News, told his network , adding that he heard the loud bang just after the jet pulled up from Sydney Airport. “We knew immediately something was wrong,” he added. “Tha...

HONG KONG — We must find a way to “get along,” Chinese President Xi Jinping told President-elect Donald Trump in a congratulatory message Thursday — an immediate nod to the long-frayed relations between the rival superpowers as well as the disruption Trump’s return to the White House might bring. Trump could inject new levels of volatility into what is often described as the world’s most important bilateral relationship, after an election win that comes at a critical moment for the globe’s two largest economies. Ties have been at their lowest point in decades amid disputes over trade, technology, Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea . But since last year, the Biden administration has taken steps to improve relations with Beijing, which is o...

China ’s new J-35A stealth fighter jet will be displayed for the first time next week at the country’s biggest civil and military airshow, a biennial event where Beijing showcases its expanding aerospace industry . The six-day China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition begins Tuesday in the southern Greater Bay city of Zhuhai. The 2022 edition of the event led to about $40 billion in “cooperation agreements” being signed, according to its organizers. Developing domestic aerospace design and manufacturing capabilities is a major strategic priority for Beijing as it vies for regional military dominance with the U.S. amid escalating tensions around Taiwan and the South China Sea . China also seeks to reduce its reliance on foreign imports, a conce...

PROVO, Utah — A small herd of domestic llamas was spotted taking an evening stroll on the train tracks in Provo, Utah, on Thursday after the woolen creatures escaped from their owner, according to the Utah Transit Authority. Several emergency responders were dispatched to round up the five llamas after transit officials received reports of the animals wandering the Union Pacific line. The llama search did not delay train service, transit authority spokesperson Gavin Gustafson said. Whether the llamas had been caught was unknown as of 10 p.m. local time, about three and a half hours after crews were called to the area 43 miles south of Salt Lake City, Gustafson said. Details about how the llamas escaped and where they came from were not immediately available. Note: Thank you for vi...

BEIJING — China on Friday announced the central government would allocate an additional 6 trillion yuan ($840 billion) to local governments for tackling hidden debt issues. The program takes effect this year and will run through the end of 2026, Chinese Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an told reporters. That breaks down to around 2 trillion yuan a year. More from CNBC American interest in moving abroad skyrockets after Trump’s win — here’s how many would actually leave How Elon Musk stands to cash in on Trump’s presidential victory What Trump’s historic election victory means for the global economy Lan added that starting this year, central authorities would issue 800 billion yuan a year in local government special bonds over five years, for a total ...

MELBOURNE, Australia — A self-described Nazi became the first person in Australia to be sentenced to prison for performing an outlawed salute when he was ordered by a magistrate on Friday to spend one month behind bars. Jacob Hersant, 25, is also the first person in the state of Victoria to be convicted of performing the Nazi salute. The gesture has been outlawed nationwide since he committed the offense. He was convicted in the Melbourne Magistrates Court last month of performing the salute before news cameras outside the Victoria County Court on Oct. 27, 2023. Hersant had just avoided a prison sentence on a conviction for causing violent disorder. Performing a Nazi salute had been outlawed by the state parliament days earlier. Magistrate Brett Sonnet allowed Hersant to re...

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 40 people around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley on Wednesday, according to the country’s health ministry, and at dusk more strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged fire for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated since late September, with Israeli troops intensifying bombing of Lebanon’s south and east and making ground incursions into border villages. Israeli strikes on Baalbek and the Bekaa Valley killed 40 people and wounded 53, the health ministry said. The Israeli military did not comment. Israel has repeatedly battered strongholds of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut. The Israeli military ordered residents...

A robot that has spent months inside the ruins of a nuclear reactor at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant delivered a tiny sample of melted nuclear fuel on Thursday, in what plant officials said was a step toward beginning the cleanup of hundreds of tons of melted fuel debris. The sample, the size of a grain of rice, was placed into a secure container, marking the end of the mission, according to Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings , which manages the plant. It is being transported to a glove box for size and weight measurements before being sent to outside laboratories for detailed analyses over the coming months. Plant chief Akira Ono has said it will provide key data to plan a decommissioning strategy, develop necessary technology and robots and lea...

President-elect Donald Trump has carried Nevada over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, NBC News projects. Trump lost the state’s six electoral votes in both of his previous runs for the White House. But those defeats against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were both by less than 2.5 percentage points, and Trump and the Republican Party have made significant strides with Latino voters and other voting blocs key to the state since then. While Nevada elected a Republican governor in 2022 — Trump-endorsed Joe Lombardo — Democrats managed to hold on in other close races up and down the ballot, a recurring theme in recent years. But Trump’s victory is a breakthrough for the GOP in a state that Democrats have mostly dominated of late. Republicans hadn’t won the presidenti...