Seven more public sites in Sydney, including a school, sports hub and supermarket, were exposed to asbestos, authorities said on Monday, as the contamination of the toxic material widened and officials rushed to remove it from public spaces.

Traces of bonded asbestos in mulch have been found in 41 spots scattered across Australia's most populous city since early January when it was found in a playground.

In response, the New South Wales state government has set up an asbestos task force to give more resources and support to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), in one of the agency's largest probes in decades.

Authorities have so far cordoned off areas in parks, some in popular tourist spots, and closed two schools. Contaminated spots in other sites have been blocked from the public.

Morale and trust within the Walt Disney World government has deteriorated since allies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took it over earlier this year, according to many employees who have departed in recent months saying the governing district has been politicized and cronyism now permeates the organization.

More than 40 out of about 370 employees have left the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District since it was taken over in February, raising concerns that decades of institutional knowledge is departing with them, along with a reputation for a well-run government.

“When I first joined the District, I found an organization that strived to be the very best at serving our community, sought the very best employees and valued those employees above all else,” a former facilities manager with three years of experience said in an employee exit survey last week. “I find myself leaving a completely different District. A District that prioritizes politics above all else and will gladly sacrifice its employees, its community and its work if there’s an opportunity to score political points.”

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will end religious services at one of the city’s Catholic churches after its longtime pastor was recently suspended from ministry because he admitted to making a payment several years ago to settle sexual harassment allegations.

Last month, Father Paschal Morlino was dismissed from his position at St. Benedict Church in southwest Baltimore, where he served for nearly 40 years and became known for his efforts to help residents of poor neighborhoods surrounding the church.

Few details about the 2018 complaint against Morlino have been released. Church officials have said they regarded “alleged sexual harassment of an adult man.” The complainant died in 2020 and a lawyer representing him in the case has declined to comment citing a non-disclosure agreement.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding its infectious disease surveillance program at four major US airports to more than 30 pathogens, including flu, RSV and other respiratory viruses.

The Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance program, led by CDC’s Travelers’ Health Branch, was introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to detect new SARS-CoV-2 variants and other pathogens through nasal swab and wastewater sample collection from arriving international travelers at US airports.

“We have known that travelers are a very important population to consider for tracking new and emerging infections,” Dr. Cindy Friedman, who leads the CDC’s traveler genomic surveillance program and is the chief of the agency’s Travelers’ Health Branch, told CNN.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti on Wednesday urged citizens in the Caribbean country to leave "as soon as possible" citing security and infrastructure challenges, as escalating violence has left thousands displaced and sent homicides soaring.

"U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible via commercial or private transport," the embassy said in a statement, urging extreme caution.

An escalating gang turf war in Haiti has caused a devastating humanitarian crisis that has displaced around 200,000 nationwide and left some 5.2 million people - nearly half of Haiti's population – in need of humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.

The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will spend $95 million to help strengthen Hawaii’s electrical grid in the wake of deadly wildfires that swept through parts of Maui earlier this month. The fast-moving fires were the deadliest in modern U.S. history, killing more than 100 people on the island, forcing thousands to evacuate and destroying the historic town of Lahaina.

On Wednesday afternoon, President Biden addressed both the government’s long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts on the island, as well as the administration’s ongoing response to Hurricane Idalia, a major storm that made landfall in Florida on Wednesday morning.

“I don’t think anybody can deny the impact of a climate crisis anymore,” Biden said. “Just look around. Historic floods ... more intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage like we’ve never seen before.”

A federal judge has determined that Rudy Giuliani has lost a defamation lawsuit from two Georgia election workers against him after he failed to provide information sought in subpoenas.

The decision could lead to significant penalties for the former Donald Trump attorney.

In court in recent weeks, Giuliani said he could no longer contest that he made false and defamatory statements about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – who are only one group of plaintiffs suing him for defamation related to his work for Trump after the 2020 election.

An inmate at a Tennessee jail gave birth alone in a cell after seeking medical help, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.

The inmate and the infant were hospitalized after the birth Sunday and were in stable condition, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

A review by the sheriff found that an inmate housed in a medical pod notified a deputy of a medical concern at 11:31 a.m., the statement said. The deputy contacted medical staff and a licensed practical nurse assessed the inmate and left to consult with additional medical staff. A registered nurse then arrived and conducted a follow up assessment, the sheriff said.

“After the follow-up assessment, the medical staff left the cell but continued to assess the situation and order additional medical tests. Deputies continued to check on the inmate during this time,” the statement said.

A deputy responded again to the inmate’s cell at 12:41 p.m. and found she had given birth while in her cell, the statement said.

The deputy helped the inmate while medical staff and emergency medical services were alerted. After being treated at the jail, both mother and infant were taken to the hospital. No further information was immediately released.

The judge overseeing Peter Navarro's contempt of Congress case ruled in a pre-trial hearing Wednesday that the former Trump adviser "has not met his burden" to show a formal assertion of executive privilege by former president Donald Trump.

Navarro will stand trial on criminal contempt of Congress next week for defying subpoenas issued to him by the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a lengthy ruling, Judge Amit Mehta said that Navarro did not provide evidence that Trump asserted executive privilege specific to the Jan 6. committee's subpoena.

A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday dismissed a criminal case charging former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with molesting a 16-year-old boy in 1974, saying the 93-year-old was not competent to stand trial after psychological experts found he had dementia.

McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, D.C., who was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019, became the only current or former U.S. Catholic cardinal to ever face child sex abuse charges when prosecutors in Massachusetts first charged him in 2021.

He was charged in April in a separate, ongoing criminal sexual assault case in Wisconsin involving the same alleged victim, who prosecutors said was fondled by McCarrick when he was 18 years old while staying as a guest at a cabin in 1977.

A woman who killed an 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach by pushing her to the ground in New York City pleaded guilty Wednesday and will be sentenced to eight years in prison, the district attorney said.

Lauren Pazienza, now 28, shoved Barbara Maier Gustern to the ground from behind in the Chelsea neighborhood on March 10, 2022, officials said at the time.

• The company said that fastener holes on some Max 737 aft pressure bulkheads were improperly drilled.

• The issue is the latest to slow airplane deliveries at Boeing.

• Boeing said the issue was not related to flight safety.

The co-founder of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX pleaded not guilty to a seven count indictment charging him with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.

An attorney for FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried said in federal court Tuesday his client has to subsist on bread, water and peanut butter because the jail he's in isn't accommodating his vegan diet.

Two of the 19 defendants in the case have surrendered at Fulton County Jail.

In a brief video shared by Russian social media channels, a person who appears to be the exiled mercenary chief says he is recruiting “real strong men.”

The first of the 18 co-defendants alongside former President Trump in the Georgia case over his efforts to subvert the state’s election results has surrendered at the Fulton County jail, records showed Tuesday morning.

Scott Hall, a bail bond business owner, was booked by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. He was given a prisoner identification number and is detained, the records show.

Attorney John Eastman and co-defendant Scott Hall, two of the 18 co-defendants charged in the Georgia election interference case alongside former President Donald Trump, have been booked at the Fulton County Jail, according to the Fulton County Inmate Record Database.

More than 200 extrajudicial killings of former Afghan government officials and security forces have taken place since the Taliban took over the country two years ago, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

The groups most targeted by the Taliban have been former army, police and intelligence forces, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

British microchip designing giant Arm has announced it has filed paperwork to sell its shares in the US.

The Cambridge-based company, which designs chips for devices from smartphones to game consoles, plans to list on New York's Nasdaq in September.

3D eye scans widely used in high street opticians could help to identify people at high risk of developing Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before they have symptoms, data has suggested.

The finding added to growing evidence that the use of eye scan data could help to detect neurodegenerative diseases and followed recent studies suggesting that the technique could help to identify early signs of Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. This emerging field of research, known as “occulomics”, is also being investigated as a means of identifying individuals with a propensity for cardiovascular disease or diabetes.