TRANSCRIPT:
- The Nationals Federal council dumps net zero from their policy platform;
- The UN alarmed by deadly post-election violence in Tanzania;
- Driver Liam Lawson cleared over a near-miss with Formula One Grand Prix officials.
National Party members have voted to abandon a target for net-zero climate emissions at a meeting of the party's Federal Council.
Leader David Littleproud told the council he still believes in reducing emissions, just not in the way the government has been doing it.
He maintains Labor's push to build a renewable energy economy has been detrimental for regional Australian communities.
The Nationals are expected to formally drop the policy at their party room meeting tomorrow - but the leader says no-one should be getting ahead of themselves.
"There's been no pre-determined position taken by the National party. That will be determined by the party room tomorrow and what the next steps are."
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The federal government has sought to reassure older Australians as changes to the nation's aged care system take effect from today.
New rules under the Aged Care Act will now require some care recipients to pay more for support services, with clinical support such as nursing and physiotherapy still fully subsidised, but services including showering now attracting a fee.
Older Persons Advocacy Network chief executive Craig Gear says companies are changing their pricing for home care in response to the reforms, which could leave some people trying to enter care worse off.
But Aged Care Minister Sam Rae says there are provisions in the new law to ensure no Australian is left behind.
"Anyone who was in the system receiving in-home care on the National Priority System List before 12 September 2024 will have their financial arrangements grandparented and won't be subject to the co-contribution evolution. Anyone who comes onto the system since that period will also have very strict guardrails in place to ensure continuity of care, including robust hardship provision to ensure if people are unable to make a co-contribution it won't ever interrupt their care."
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Police have drained and searched a dam as the search for four-year-old Gus Lamont in remote South Australia continues, more than a month since the boy went missing on his family property near Yunta.
The three-and-half-hour operation involving a search of weed beds by police divers has failed to uncover anything significant.
A four-day search within a 5-and-a-half kilometre radius of the homestead also concluded without locating evidence.
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The United Nations says it is alarmed by reports of fatalities at protests after a nationwide election in Tanzania.
The protests were sparked by accusations of a campaign of repression by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, with critics saying she had sought to cement her position and silence critics by either jailing her main challengers or barring them from standing.
The claims about the deaths of protesters originally came from Tanzania's main opposition party, but have since been repeated by other groups like Amnesty International which says it had received information that at least 100 people had been killed.
UN human rights office spokesman Seif Magango says they have also been advised of allegations of excessive use of force as authorities respond to the unrest.
"We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania. Credible reports we have received indicate that at least ten people were killed in Dar es Salaam, Shinyanga and Morogoro as security forces used firearms and tear gas to disperse protesters."
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The brother of the late Virginia Giuffre says he wants to share his sister’s story directly with King Charles.
Sky Roberts says that a personal meeting would let him express the emotions behind his sister’s fight for justice as one of the highest profile victims of the Epstein trafficking scandal.
"If the king is saying he stands with survivors and their victims, then meet with us, have a conversation with us. We're real people with real stories that can affect real change."
Mr Roberts has also praised the King’s decision to strip Andrew of his titles and royal residence, calling it overdue.
But he has urged Charles to go further by pressing U-S authorities to reveal more about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
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The Grand Egyptian Museum is finally opening to the public beside the Pyramids of Giza, near Cairo.
Among more than 100,000 artefacts is the complete collection of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, including his famous golden funerary mask.
Dr Karin Sowada is the director of the Australian Centre for Egyptology at Macquarie University, and says the project has been 20 years in the making.
"It showcases over 5000 years of Egyptian history and archaeology from the earliest periods, of the formation of the state to the Coptic early Christian era."
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To sport and in F1 racing news,
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has been cleared of blame after a near miss with race marshals during last week's F1 race in Mexico.
Onboard footage had suggested he saw the marshals, who were collecting debris from an earlier collision, at the last moment after turning into the right-hander.
But Formula One's governing body says Lawson bears no responsibility.
