"To be appointed to present that same show, three decades later, is a dream come true.
"I can't wait to talk about what matters to our Sydney listeners every day and have a few laughs along the way."
Maynard is a Kennedy Award winner and a Walkley Award finalist and has won the Brian White Award for Excellence in Journalism for the past three years.
2GB Content Manager Luke Davis said "there is no one better placed to dissect the issues that matter to Sydneysiders on their drive home" than Maynard.
"He's ready and raring to go," he said.
The announcement comes a little over a month after O'Keefe announced he would be retiring from his media career and starting a new political and media consultancy and advocacy role this year.
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New official portraits of US President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance have been released days ahead of the Republican's return to the White House.
The images were released on social media yesterday by Trump's chief photographer, Daniel Torok.
Torok posted them with the caption, "We are entering the Golden Age of America".
Trump's 2025 presidential portrait appears similar, if more starkly lit, to his December 2016 portrait as president-elect.
His first official presidential portrait, however, released nine months into his first term in 2017, shows him smiling.
Trump and Vance will both take the oath of office at their inauguration ceremony on Monday local time in Washington DC.
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A South Florida woman is behind bars after allegedly stabbing her husband.
The Boca Raton Police Department said on Tuesday that 58-year-old Terry L Taylor was arrested earlier this week and charged with second-degree murder in the death of her husband Stanley Taylor.
The police department said it responded to the 3300 block of Jaywood Terrace on Monday morning local time for a medical emergency.
According to the police department, Terry contacted a neighbor and asked the neighbor to call 911 because Stanley fell on a knife.
Officers found Stanley suffering from a stab wound to his torso. While he was transported to a local hospital for treatment, he stated that his wife, Terry, stabbed him and tried to kill him.
When questioned by police, Terry told detectives that she got into a physical altercation with Stanley and during the altercation, there was a struggle over a wooden cane.
Terry said she reached for another cane nearby and "went at him with it." The cane was an illegal brass cane with a sharp point on the tip. Terry noted that she may have injured Stanley by striking him with the cane.
After obtaining a search warrant, police were able to examine the home and the cane, which revealed the grip of the cane could be unscrewed from the shaft, revealing an attachment to a blade.
Police noted it was apparent that the blade had been wiped.
Terry is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail.
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Mediators have finally been able to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after more than 15 months of war in Gaza.
The conflict began with a bloody terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, which saw 1200 people killed and more than 200 others kidnapped as hostages.
Israel's ferocious response has so far seen 46,000 people in Gaza killed, according to local health authorities, and brought about what the United Nations has called a humanitarian crisis in the devastated region.
Now a potential end to the war is in sight. Here's how it will work.
What are the stages of the ceasefire?
As clarifed by Biden this morning, the ceasefire has three stages.
Phase one starts Sunday, according to mediator Qatar.
It should include a six-week halt to fighting and the opening of negotiations on ending the war.
Thirty-three of the nearly 100 Israeli hostages should be released over the period, although it's not clear if all are alive. They include women, older adults and wounded people.
Mediator the US says this first phase also includes a withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas of Gaza.
That will allow many displaced Palestinians to return to their communities.
Humanitarian assistance would surge, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza each day. Final details still being worked out include the list of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be freed.
Phase two will see negotiations open on day 16 of the ceasefire.
The phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.
Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. But Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas' military and political capabilities are eliminated.
And Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops.
Phase three calls for the return of the bodies of remaining hostages and the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which is largely devastated and faces decades of rebuilding.
Does the ceasefire mean the war is over?
Not exactly. The ceasefire only covers a six-week period of non-fighting to allow the negotiations needed to end the war to take place.
However, Biden said this morning that if longer than six weeks was needed to come to that agreement, the ceasefire would be extended as necessary, as long as both sides remained in negotiation.
But in fact, the ceasefire isn't even certain yet.
Though announced by both the US and Qatar as confirmed, and hailed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said details were still being worked out.
Netanyahu has not said explicitly whether he accepts the deal.
In a statement, Netanyahu said he would only issue a formal response "after the final details of the agreement, which are currently being worked on, are completed."
What happens next?
Assuming there is no last-minute reversal from any of the parties involved, Egyptian, Qatar and US negotiators will head to Cairo on Thursday for further talks on implementing all aspects of the ceasefire deal, according to a senior US official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the negotiators are focused on making sure expectations are clear to both Israel and Hamas, and that implementation of the agreement is carried out as smoothly as possible.
Additionally, the United Nations is preparing for an immediate supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The top UN humanitarian official for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, has been discussing with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials how to increase desperately needed aid after a ceasefire takes effect.
Tom Fletcher, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said aid agencies have been mobilising to scale up aid delivery across Gaza.
In a statement, Fletcher called for the protection of civilians and infrastructure, authorisation for aid workers to have safe and "unfettered" access to people in need, and "removing all obstacles to the entry of essential aid."
OCHA spokesperson Eri Kaneko, in an email, said, "we can only deliver as much as the conditions on the ground allow for us to do so."
US President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, emphasised that, "The surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza will begin. And the innocent people can have a greater access to these vital supplies."
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A hip-hop superstar beef was cranked up another notch Wednesday when Drake sued Universal Music Group for defamation over rival Kendrick Lamar's diss track “Not Like Us.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges UMG — the parent record label for Drake and Lamar — published and promoted the track even though it included false pedophilia allegations against Drake and suggested listeners should resort to vigilante justice.
The result, the suit says, was intruders shooting a security guard and two attempted break-ins at Drake’s Toronto home, online hate and harassment, a hit to his reputation and a decrease in his brand's value before his contract renegotiation with UMG this year.
“The lawsuit is not about the artist who created ‘Not Like Us,’" the lawsuit says, referring to Lamar.
“It is, instead, entirely about UMG, the music company that decided to publish, promote, exploit, and monetize allegations that it understood were not only false, but dangerous.”
The suit later alleges, “UMG did so because it understood that the Recording's inflammatory and shocking allegations were a gold mine.”
And, the suit claims, the music company has made large investments and used its connections to arrange for “Not Like Us” to be performed at next month's Super Bowl, where Lamar will be the halftime entertainment.
The lawsuit, which is seeking a trial and an undisclosed amount of money for damages, also repeated allegations in other legal filings that UMG falsely pumped up the popularity of “Not Like Us” on streaming services.
The track is nominated for five Grammys, including record of the year and song of the year.
UMG disputed the lawsuit's allegations in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist — let alone Drake — is illogical," the company said. “We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.”
The company added: “Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music. ”
Representatives for Lamar did not respond to emails seeking comment.
The feud between Drake, a 38-year-old Canadian rapper and singer and five-time Grammy winner whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, and Lamar, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner, is among the biggest in hip-hop in recent years, with two of the genre’s biggest stars at its centre.
The two were occasional collaborators more than a decade ago, but Lamar began taking public jabs at Drake starting in 2013. The fight escalated steeply last year.
Drake's lawyers, from New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher, said the lawsuit seeks to hold UMG accountable for knowingly promoting false and defamatory allegations against him.
They said the shooting and break-in attempts at Drake's home, and the online vitriol, prompted him to move his family out of the house, and that he fears for his and their safety.
“Beginning on May 4, 2024 and every day since, UMG has used its massive resources as the world’s most powerful music company to elevate a dangerous and inflammatory message that was designed to assassinate Drake’s character, and led to actual violence at Drake’s doorstep,” the law firm said in a statement.
“This lawsuit reveals the human and business consequences to UMG’s elevation of profits over the safety and well-being of its artists, and shines a light on the manipulation of artists and the public for corporate gain,” it said.
A man has died after being pulled from the water at a beach on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
At about 6.20pm yesterday, emergency services were told members of the public were performing CPR on a man who had been removed from the surf at Cabbage Tree Bay Beach, Norah Head.
Police assisted in CPR efforts until paramedics arrived.
They took the 73-year-old man to Wyong Hospital where he died a short time later.
Police have begun an investigation into the incident.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
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Former US first lady Michelle Obama will not attend Donald Trump's inauguration next week, her office said, without providing an explanation for her decision.
"Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration," a statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said.
The decision to forgo attendance at Trump's formal swearing-in is a break with tradition for the ceremony, in which former presidents and their wives typically participate. Former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush will attend the inauguration, his office said, and sources familiar told CNN that former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton also will be there.
Michelle Obama also was not in attendance at a memorial service last week for former president Jimmy Carter, remaining instead in Hawaii.
Former president Barack Obama attended the service at the National Cathedral in Washington, sitting next to Trump and engaging in animated conversation with him as the program was getting underway.
Other former first ladies, including Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, both attended the Carter event.
Michelle Obama has spoken openly about her animosity toward Trump, whom she has accused of putting her family's safety in danger through his rhetoric.
In 2017, she put those personal feelings aside after Trump won his first presidential election, welcoming the incoming president and Melania Trump to the White House for tea ahead of that year's swearing-in.
In the years afterward, she spoke about the experience of sitting onstage as Trump was inaugurated.
"There were tears, there was that emotion. But then to sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display – there was no diversity, there was no colour on that stage, there was no reflection of the broader sense of America," she said in a podcast in 2023.
The Trumps did not attend President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021 amid the president-elect's false claims that he won the 2020 election.
The 32-year-old man, from Cowandilla, was arrested and is being treated for his leg injury.
It is expected he will be charged with murder and property offences once treatment is complete, police said.
Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.
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At least 100 men who were mining illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa have died after being trapped deep underground for months while police tried to get them out, a group representing the miners said.
Sabelo Mnguni, a spokesman for the Mining Affected Communities United in Action group told The Associated Press that a mobile phone sent to the surface with some rescued miners on Friday (Saturday AEST) had two videos on it showing dozens of bodies underground wrapped in plastic.
Mnguni said “a minimum” of 100 men had died in the mine in North West province where police first launched an operation in November to force the miners out.
They were suspected to have died of starvation or dehydration, Mnguni said. He said 18 bodies have been brought out since Friday.
Nine of those bodies were recovered in a community-led operation on Friday, he said. Another nine were brought out in an official operation by authorities on Monday, when 26 survivors were also rescued, Mnguni said.
Police spokesman Sebata Mokgwabone said they were still verifying information on how many bodies had been recovered and how many survivors brought out after starting a new rescue operation on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
Illegal mining is common in parts of South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving groups of informal miners to illegally enter them to try and find leftover deposits.
The videos sent up to the surface on the mobile phone and released publicly by Mnguni’s group show dozens of what appear to be dead bodies wrapped in plastic lying in darkened tunnels underground. Emaciated men were seen sitting near them.
The mine has been the scene of a stand-off between police and miners since authorities first attempted to force the miners out and seal the mine two months ago.
Police said the miners were refusing to come out for fear of arrest, but Mnguni said they had been left trapped underground after police removed the ropes they used to climb out of the mine.
Police also cut off the miners’ food supplies in an attempt to force them out. Large groups of illegal miners often go underground for months to maximize their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on others in their group at the surface to send down more supplies.
Police have said they are uncertain exactly how many illegal miners remain underground at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine near the northern town of Stilfontein, but it’s likely to be hundreds.
Mnguni said that at least 500 miners remained underground in different places in the mine, which is one of the deepest in South Africa at 2.5 kilometres deep and has multiple shafts, many levels and is a maze of tunnels, he said. He said a preliminary autopsy report on a body that was previously brought out of the mine showed the man had died of starvation.
