Key Points
- Liberal, Nationals MPs react to shock climate report
- A suspect for notorious Bloody Sunday killings pleads not guilty
- AFL State of Origin game one set for Perth in February 2026
The federal opposition appears to be on the edge of open revolt over a bombshell report that laid out a catastrophic vision of Australia's future if climate change runs unchecked.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan has accused the authors of the National Climate Risk Assessment of spreading fear rather than conducting an objective scientific analysis.
Meanwhile frontbencher Andrew Hastie says he is prepared to either step down or be sacked if the Liberal Party does not abandon its 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target.
Mr Hastie's comments will further ratchet up the pressure on leader Sussan Ley [[lee]], who has consistently said she wants to let the post-election review process play out before a decision is reached on net zero.
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As the Federal Government considers its emissions targets for 2035, environmental experts have advised a Senate committee about the risks to Australia if it warms by 1.5, 2 or 3 degrees.
The hearings are being held in Canberra after the National Climate Risk Assessment revealed within five years almost 600,000 Australians who live within 10 kilometres of a beach, will be inundated by rising sea levels.
Australian Climate Service General Manager, Dr Judith Landsberg, says the areas to be impacted are already feeling the effects of climate change.
"Broadly, southern Queensland, up the coast of Queensland, there are areas at risk in Western Australia. There are areas at risk in every region, but also South Australia and the southeast of Victoria."
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A former British paratrooper has pleaded not guilty to murder charges over the infamous Bloody Sunday killings in the Northern Ireland town of Derry.
Prosecutors however have argued that the man - identified only as Soldier F - is responsible for two of the 13 deaths in the 1972 massacre that took place after a civil rights march.
Soldier F is the only veteran ever to be prosecuted for Bloody Sunday, after authorities decided in 2019 there was insufficient evidence to charge 16 other former soldiers.
But Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioner David Johnstone says it should never have come to this, and too many veterans had been unfairly targeted by constant investigations over the decades.
"Many veterans today feel frustrated, feel angry, and indeed, feel betrayed by the legacy process since 1998."
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Guidelines for social media platforms to comply with age restriction laws have been released by the federal government.
Communications Minister Anika Wells and e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant have published the rules, which they say are principles based, and not based on requirements that force anyone to use specific technologies to block under 16s from their platforms.
ESafety Commissioner Grant says social media sites will not be expected to verify the age of all users as blanket checks might be considered unreasonable.
But she says some companies are already ahead of the curve.
"For instance, the day that the Minister tabled our final rules with the Prime Minister, Google put out a blog indicating that they were rolling out age assurance on YouTube in the United States. They will be using that same infrastructure to roll out age assurance technologies for Australians. So we know that they are capable of that today, and we will be certainly watching and expecting that they would do the same in compliance with Australian law."
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Donald Trump has signed an executive order to send the National Guard into Memphis, a move he says is a replica of their deployment to Washington DC.
The US President says he's making the move to combat crime, with the White House posting on social media that the Memphis total crime rate was higher than the national average.
But Memphis police say they have recently reported decreases across every major crime category in the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period in previous years.
Critics like Democratic Tennessee state representative, Justin Pearson, says the order is the latest test of the limits of presidential power.
He says the move is politically motivated because Trump is targeting cities run by Democrats.
"Today, it is a conversation about crime. In 14 months, it'll be a conversation about protecting the vote at the voting booth. In three and a half years, it's going to be about a presidential election and the need to protect it. And what happens when we go to the polls and the National Guard is there and all they're doing is asking you, 'Are you sure you want to vote?' This isn't just a slippery slope. This is a dangerous impediment on our democracy."
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To sport and in AFL News, the Australian Football League is reviving its State of Origin series after a 27-year hiatus.
The AFL says the State of Origin will begin with a Western Australian representative team hosting a Victorian side in Perth on Valentines Day next year.
AFL Chief Executive, Andrew Dillion, says its revival is the result of public demand.
"Fans and players have been calling for the return of origin and there is a huge appetite from the footy public to see more marquee events across the calendar year. We saw that here at Optus Stadium earlier this year with the fantastic return of the Indigenous All Stars game. Origin inspires passion, state pride and draws upon year old rivalries that are essential to the history of our game."
