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Good morning blog readers – this is Rafqa Touma, and I’ll be taking you through the day’s live news updates. Thank you to Martin Farrer for getting us rolling this morning.
More than 125,000 properties are in the dark as crews work to restore power across QLD and NSW in Alfred’s aftermath.
Continue reading...NSW police allege Moosawi directed two men who have pleaded guilty to setting the Curly Lewis brewery on fire in October 2024. He has denied all charges
A former bikie boss is among 14 people charged this week over a wave of alleged antisemitic attacks in Sydney that authorities claim were designed to distract police from organised crime or influence prosecutions.
On Tuesday, 32-year-old Sayed Moosawi, a former chapter president of the Nomad bikies, pleaded not guilty to three charges related to two alleged arson attacks on businesses in Bondi Beach in October.
Continue reading...Ticket holders for the Tuesday night concert at an outdoor riverside venue have complained about the decision to go ahead in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred
Live music promoters TEG Group and British band New Order are facing a public backlash after announcing they would go ahead with a scheduled concert in Brisbane as the city grapples with major flooding in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The concert, part of the Manchester synth-pop pioneers’ Australian tour, is set to take place Tuesday night at Riverstage, a 9,500-capacity outdoor venue located on Brisbane river, within the city’s Botanic Gardens.
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Continue reading...Australia unlikely to escape US president’s global steel and aluminium tariffs despite intense lobbying to be carved out
Australia’s chances of escaping America’s global steel and aluminium tariffs appear all but extinguished, with the US president reconfirming his commitment to a comprehensive tariff regime he argues will be “the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country”.
“We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,” Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One flying from Florida to Washington DC.
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Continue reading...Laura Leaf had a sick possum for company when she spent three nights in a spare room at Mallory Wilson’s Nerang home
Laura Leaf, a rescued koala, was the last surgery of the day at Currumbin wildlife hospital, just hours before its doors were due to close to ride out Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
But after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Wednesday, Laura Leaf needed round-the-clock care – and the Gold Coast hospital’s intensive care unit was about to be shut.
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Continue reading...The prime minister has more reason than most to be the boots on the ground after 63% of voters said he is not in tune with ordinary Australians
Anthony Albanese might have expected to have been on his campaign plane on Monday, flying between marginal seats on the first day of the election trail proper.
Instead he’s sloshing around in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred – the weather event that was meant to bear his name and blew his election announcement plan right off course.
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Continue reading...US president’s late-night social media post came after Turnbull criticised Trump’s leadership as ‘chaotic’
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said leaders should “not give in to bullies” after he was lashed by Donald Trump in a late-night social media post.
Taking to Truth Social platform just before midnight Sunday night in Washington DC, the US president said Turnbull led Australia from “behind” and did not understand China.
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Continue reading...Russian embassy in Australia says western boots on the ground is ‘unacceptable’ and statement is not a threat but a ‘warning’
Russia has warned the Australian government that deploying troops to Ukraine as part of an international peace keeping operation would lead to “grave consequences”.
The Australian government is considering a proposal to send peacekeepers to the war-torn region as part of a “coalition of the willing” designed by European leaders. The troops would enforce any peace deal struck between the two nations.
Continue reading...‘The caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived by organised criminals domestically and from offshore,’ AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett says
Federal police say a caravan with explosives found in Sydney earlier this year was “never going to cause a mass casualty event” and was a “fake terrorism plot”.
The Australian federal police deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said on Monday investigators now believed the caravan incident was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.
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Continue reading...Opposition leader says critics seeking ‘political advantage’ after Murray Watt says Dutton ‘sold out his constituents’ by attending Sydney soiree
Peter Dutton has defended his decision to attend a lavish fundraiser in Sydney as then Tropical Cyclone Alfred approached Queensland last week, claiming those criticising his decision were seeking “political advantage”.
The opposition leader’s Monday morning interview on Sky News came after Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt claimed Dutton had “sold out his constituents” by not staying in his Dickson electorate.
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Continue reading...South-east Queensland and northern NSW face further heavy downpours
More than 230,000 households and businesses are without power and flash flooding alerts have been issued for coastal areas in the aftermath of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.
The warnings follow heavy rain across southeast Queensland overnight and are clustered around the Brisbane, Gold Coast, Logan and Ipswich council areas.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Department told minister in November 2023 Palestinian and Muslim communities were ‘extremely angry, hurt and betrayed’
The home affairs department warned the government as early as November 2023 that its perceived one-sidedness in support of Israel during the Gaza conflict left Palestinian and Muslim Australians feeling “extremely angry” and “betrayed” , as well as concern about social cohesion, documents reveal.
A November 2023 briefing document to the then immigration minister, Andrew Giles, was obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws. It discussed “social cohesion measures”, including a $25m package announced in October 2023 to strengthen resilience and improve support to Australian Palestinian, Muslim and other communities in Australia after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war waged by Israel in Gaza. A total of $52.8m had been approved for social cohesion measures relating to the conflict, according to the document.
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Continue reading...Two personnel in serious condition after accident near city lashed by torrential rain brought by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred
Twelve soldiers remain in hospital – two in a serious condition – after two army trucks carrying troops rolled on a country road near Lismore on Saturday evening as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred lashed the northern New South Wales coast and southern Queensland.
Thirty-two defence personnel were involved in the crash – members of the 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment, part of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli Barracks in northern Brisbane – just after 5pm on Tregeagle Road, 9km south-west of Lismore.
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Continue reading...Michael Murphy outed himself as subject of Icac investigation that found he had mismanaged a conflict of interest
The Northern Territory’s police commissioner has been given his marching orders after a jobs-for-mates scandal uncovered by a corruption watchdog.
Michael Murphy outed himself as the subject of an Independent Commissioner Against Corruption investigation that found improper and unsatisfactory conduct against an unnamed public official who had mismanaged a conflict of interest in the recruitment of a senior officer.
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Continue reading...Nominee for undersecretary for defense policy says Aukus deal to deliver Virginia class submarines could leave US sailors ‘vulnerable’
One of Donald Trump’s top picks for the Pentagon says selling submarines to Australia under the Aukus agreement poses a “very difficult problem” for the US and could endanger its own sailors.
Elbridge Colby, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy – the number three post at the US Department of Defense – has previously admitted he is “skeptical” about Aukus and said this week he is worried selling submarines to Australia could leave US sailors “vulnerable” because the vessels won’t be “in the right place in the right time”.
Continue reading...Much of the security is on the passenger side of the terminal, Geoff Askew says, not on the tarmac
Australia’s smaller and regional airports are rife with security vulnerabilities, industry insiders have warned, after the dramatic citizen’s arrest of a teenager who allegedly boarded a Jetstar flight with a shotgun and ammunition.
Police charged a 17-year-old Victorian boy with a range of offences, including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm.
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Continue reading...WA Labor will hold a third term in office, with the early vote count showing the Liberals failing to gain traction with any significant swing
• Western Australia has one story about the gas industry. It won’t accept dissent from ‘over east’
Labor will govern for a third term in Western Australia, with the Liberal Party failing to attract the swing required to threaten Roger Cook’s majority.
Polls predicted a 12-13% swing could put up to 11 seats in reach of the Liberal party.
Continue reading...One truck rolled several times into a paddock and another tipped onto its side, attempting to avoid the first vehicle, at around 5pm on Saturday
Thirty-two people were involved in an incident in which two Australian defence force vehicles rolled off the road at Lismore on Saturday that has left 13 injured, some seriously.
Emergency services were called to the scene in northern New South Wales shortly after 5pm with initial reports that 22 people had been injured. NSW police said on Sunday that 13 personnel were injured. Six are in a serious condition.
Continue reading...Almost 100,000 homes in Queensland and NSW were without power on Friday evening as cyclone crawled towards the coast
Millions of people are sheltering from Tropical Cyclone Alfred as it crashes into the coast of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales bringing destructive winds and heavy rain.
The slow-moving weather system was finally expected to make landfall after speeding up overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning as it moved towards Brisbane.
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Continue reading...Health minister convenes meeting after reports second-largest private hospital operator risks voluntary administration
The health minister, Mark Butler, has convened an urgent meeting with the chief executives of Australia’s private hospitals and health insurers amid warnings the second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, is facing a financial crisis.
The Australian Financial Review reported this week that Healthscope had retained insolvency experts KordaMentha to prepare a contingency plan in case it is placed into voluntary administration.
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