SYDNEY: A suspected “large shark” mauled a surfer to death in a rare fatal attack off a Sydney beach on Saturday, Australian police and rescuers said, leading to a string of beach closures.

The man was pulled out of the Pacific surf onto shore at northern Sydney’s Long Reef Beach but died at the scene, New South Wales police said in a statement.

“A man has died on the Northern Beaches after being bitten by what is believed to have been a large shark,” police said.

Two sections of a surfboard were recovered and taken for examination, police said, adding that they were working with experts to identify the species of shark involved.

Images of the scene on local media showed police gathered on the shore and ambulances parked nearby.

The victim was bitten by the ocean predator while surfing in the morning away from a patrolled area of the beach, according to Surf Life Saving NSW.

Beaches between the northern suburbs of Manly and Narrabeen have been closed for at least 24 hours, it said.

“For now, please remain clear of the water at beaches in the vicinity and follow the direction of lifeguards and lifesavers,” Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said in a statement.

“Our deepest condolences go to the family of the man involved in this terrible tragedy.”

Surf life saving clubs nearby have cancelled all water activity and training for the weekend.

‘Critical injuries’

It was the first fatal shark attack in Sydney since 2022, when 35-year-old British diving instructor Simon Nellist was killed off Little Bay.

The previous fatal attack in the city was in 1963.

Drones were now scanning the beach for shark activity, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC.

Police said emergency services rushed to the scene following alerts that the man, who was not identified, had suffered “critical injuries”.

An unnamed surfer said the victim had been surfing off the adjoining Long Reef and Dee Why beaches.

“Four or five surfers pulled him out of the water and it looked like a significant part of his lower half had been attacked,” the surfer said, according to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

People were ordered out of the water, he told the paper.

“There was a surf lifesaving guy waving a red flag,” the surfer said. “I didn’t know what it was … but thought I should probably go in (to shore).”

Australia’s last deadly shark attack was in March, when a surfer was taken off the remote Wharton Beach of Western Australia.

There have been more than 1,280 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death, according to a database of the predators’ encounters with humans.

• Parliament confirms Anutin as PM ending week-long power vacuum. 
• PM receives backing of People’s Party, which holds plurality of seats.
• Apex court due to rule on Tuesday over Thaksin’s hospital stay.

Thailand’s next prime minister has pledged to make good on his promise to lead the fractured interim government to new polls.

Conservative tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul was confirmed by parliament on Friday, ending a week-long power vacuum following the ouster of his predecessor, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

The construction magnate cobbled together a coalition of opposition blocs to shut out Pheu Thai, the electoral vehicle of the once-dominant Shinawatra dynasty’s patriarch Thaksin.

He received the backing of the People’s Party, which holds a plurality of seats, on condition that he dissolve parliament within four months for fresh elections.

“I will follow all agreements,” he said Friday outside his party headquarters.

“We must bring back the spirit of the ‘Land of Smiles’ to our country during my short time in office,” he said, adding that he was known to dislike conflict.

Anutin addressed Thaksin’s unexpected flight from the kingdom the night before Friday’s vote — and days before a court case — bound for Dubai, where he said he would visit friends and seek medical treatment.

“There will be no favouritism, no persecution, and no revenge,” Anutin said.

The Supreme Court is due to rule on Tuesday in a case over Thaksin’s hospital stay following his return from exile in August 2023, a verdict some analysts say could see him jailed.

Anutin´s right-wing Bhumjaithai party went into coalition with Pheu Thai in 2023, but pulled out in June over Paetongtarn’s alleged misconduct in a leaked phone call with Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen.

The Shinawatras have been a mainstay of Thai politics for the past two decades, sparring with the pro-monarchy, pro-military establishment that views them as a threat to the kingdom´s traditional social order.

But they have faced a series of setbacks, including Paetongtarn´s removal last week.

Anutin previously served as deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister — but is perhaps most famous for delivering on a promise to legalise cannabis in 2022.

His elevation to premiership still needs to be endorsed by Thailand’s king to become official.

• Trump administration ends virtually all aid to Afghanistan in April. 
• UN says initial donations came from multiple countries, but more needed.
• IRC needs Washington’s permission to send equipment to Afghanistan. 

Nearly a week after an earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in Afghanistan and left tens of thousands homeless, the United States has not taken the first step to authorise emergency aid, and it was unclear if it plans to help at all, two former senior US officials and a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

The lack of response by Washington to one of Afghanistan’s deadliest quakes in years underscores how President Donald Trump has forfeited decades of US leadership of global disaster relief with his deep foreign aid cuts and closure of the main US foreign assistance agency, said the source and the former officials.

The US Agency for International Development was officially shuttered on Tuesday.

The State Department on Monday extended its “heartfelt condolences” to Afghanistan in an X post.

As of Friday, however, the State Department had not approved a declaration of humanitarian need, the first step in authorising US emergency relief, said the former officials, both of whom worked at USAID, and the third source, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Such a declaration is usually issued within 24 hours of a major disaster.

The sources said State Department officials had considered recommendations for US disaster aid for Afghanistan. One former senior official said the White House also has considered the issue, but decided against reversing a policy of ending aid to Afghanistan.

When asked if the US would provide any emergency aid to Afghanistan following the magnitude 6 quake on Sunday, which was followed by powerful aftershocks on Thursday and Friday, a State Department spokesperson said: “We have nothing further to announce at this time.”

The United States was, until this year, the largest aid donor to Afghanistan, where it fought a 20-year war that ended with a chaotic US withdrawal and the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul in 2021.

But in April, the Trump administration ended virtually all aid — totaling $562 million — to Afghanistan, citing a US watchdog report that humanitarian groups receiving US funds had paid $10.9 million in taxes, fees, and duties to the Taliban.

Asked whether the US would provide emergency relief for earthquake survivors, a White House official said, “President Trump has been consistent in ensuring aid does not land in the hands of the Taliban regime, which continues to wrongfully detain US citizens.”

‘Stuck in storage’

United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the Afghan earthquake was “the latest crisis to expose the cost of shrinking resources on vital humanitarian work.”

“Massive funding cuts have already brought essential health and nutrition services for millions to a halt; grounded aircraft, which are often the only lifeline to remote communities; and forced aid agencies to reduce their footprint,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

The Trump administration also has yet to respond to a request by the International Rescue Committee humanitarian organisation to send $105,000 worth of US-funded medical supplies following the first earthquake.

The materials include stethoscopes, first aid supplies, stretchers, and other essentials, said Kelly Razzouk, vice president of policy and advocacy for the IRC.

“The stocks are stuck in storage,” said Razzouk, who served on former US President Joe Biden’s National Security Council. “In recent memory, I can’t remember a time when the US did not respond to a crisis like this.”

The IRC needs Washington’s permission to send the equipment to Afghanistan because it had been funded by an unrelated US grant that the Trump administration had since canceled.

“Beyond the loss of life, we have also seen basic infrastructure and livelihoods destroyed,” Stephen Rodriguez, the representative in Afghanistan for the UN Development Programme, told reporters on Friday.

He said donations of money, goods, and services have come from Britain, South Korea, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and other countries.

“Far more is needed.”