‘Empire’ TV star Jussie Smollett has been targeted in a suspected racist and homophobic hate crime , after he was attacked by two men while leaving a restaurant.

The 36 year-old gay African-American actor, was admitted to hospital after the two men punched him in the face and doused him in an unknown chemical substance, before tying a rope around his neck, shouting “this is MAGA country”, and fleeing the scene.

The  incident is being investigated by Chicago police as a hate crime.

Tasmanian firefighters are preparing for a horror day as temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, combine with dry winds to create severe bushfire conditions.

33 fires are burning across the state this morning, with 12 at emergency levels, cutting off power to hundreds of homes and engulfing the Hobart CBD in smoke.

Andrew McGuinness of the Tasmanian Fire Service, warns that with the conditions predicted, it’s unlikely any of the blazes will be controllable.

An Apple spokesperson has stated the recent Facetime bug letting users listen to audio when the call has not yet been picked up, will be fixed by the end of the week.

It comes after Facetime users found this bug worked on group calls, whilst normal two-way calls were not affected, with Apple since disabling the ability for group Facetimes.

CEO of security firm TrustedSec, Dave Kennedy, says although it is unsure if the bug was exploited maliciously, Apple’s brand will still take the hit from the incident.

According to a domestic survey published this week, Afghan men remain strongly opposed to giving women more freedoms and leadership positions, with two thirds believing women already have too many rights.

Responses found younger men were even more reluctant than their elders to embrace women’s rights, while almost one in three women thought women are “too emotional” for leadership positions.

Australia has been ranked 13th least corrupt in the world by the Transparency International’s corruption perception Index released yesterday, representing an equal record low for the nation.

Australia’s failure to improve on its record low ranking in the global measure of government corruption has prompted renewed calls for a federal integrity commission to be established “without delay and political wrangling”.

New Zealand was ranked the second least corrupt country in the world, just behind Denmark.

A new report warns thats Adani’s proposed Carmichael Coal Mine could destroy the last major habitat of the endangered black-throated finch.

The Galilee Basin is the most viable and populace location for the birds, while also being the main location for the mine, and as a result, the Indian company has earmarked 33 000 hectares of alternative habitat.

A report compiled by the Foundation for Young Australians has revealed up to a third of young people in the nation’s most marginal electorates are without a job or underemployed.

The report points to Queensland as being most at risk from a chronic mismatch between the job needs of young people and the skills they take into the workforce, with warnings many have skills that will be useless within a decade.