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Lionel Messi is back in the World Cup final with Argentina on his mission to win football's biggest prize for the first time. And, at 35, he could hardly be playing any better. Messi converted a penalty and had a hand in the other two goals by Julián Álvarez, leading Argentina to a 3-0 win over Croatia that set up a meeting with either France or Morocco at 1am on Monday (AEDT). AS IT HAPPENED: FIFA World Cup first semi-final READ MORE: 'Blistering' McKeon leg snares gold, world record READ MORE: Coach confronts jarring question amid Warner rut READ MORE: Call made on Hazlewood's Gabba replacement It will be Messi’s second World Cup final - Argentina lost the other one to Germany in 2014 - and likely, his final chance. He received the man of the match award after...

Australian citizen and former US Marine pilot Daniel Duggan, who was arrested earlier this year in New South Wales, is accused of breaking American arms control law by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers, according to an indictment unsealed by a US court. The 2017 indictment, released last Friday by the District of Columbia court, said "Duggan provided military training to PRC People's Republic of China) pilots" through a South African flight school on three occasions in 2010 and 2012. It lists unnamed co-conspirators including one South African and one British national who were executives of "a test flying academy based in South Africa with a presence in the PRC," and a Chinese national who acquired military information for the Chinese military. ...

The major advance in fusion research announced in Washington overnight was decades in coming, with scientists for the first time able to engineer a reaction that produced more power than was used to ignite it. Using powerful lasers to focus enormous energy on a miniature capsule half the size of a BB, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California started a reaction that produced about 1.5 times more energy than was contained in the light used to produce it. There are decades more to wait before fusion could one day — maybe — be used to produce electricity in the real world. READ MORE: Officers 'fired upon' almost immediately after arriving at Queensland property Fusion technology has taken a major leap forward. (AP) But the promise of fusio...

The Ukrainian army said it shot down 10 drones on Saturday but another five had hit energy facilities, leaving some 1.5 million people without power. Later on, the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol said a strike had been carried out on the Russian-held city. Images shared by a Russian-installed official there show a big fire. Russia's drone attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa saw Moscow fire Iranian-made drones at key infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said. "The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. "Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn't take hours, but a few days." Since Octobe...

Peru’s newest president, Dina Boluarte, swore in her cabinet on Saturday just three days after becoming the country’s first female head of state, and asked each minister to pledge not to be corrupt while in office. The 17 ministers picked by Boluarte, who on Wednesday was elevated from vice-president to replace the ousted Pedro Castillo as the country’s leader, will be key to further inflaming or calming a South American country experiencing a seemingly endemic political crisis. Boluarte presented her centrist government amid demonstrations across Peru calling for her resignation and the scheduling of general elections to replace her and Congress. She asked each of the nine men and eight women to swear or promise to perform their duties “loyally and faithfully without committing acts of...