TRANSCRIPT:
- More details emerge about Albanese's newly announced national gun buyback;
- A manual vote count underway in Honduras after presidential elections in November;
- Melbourne City upbeat about Matthew Leckie's post-surgery return.
The Prime Minister has shared more details of his planned firearms buyback scheme - the biggest in nearly 30 years.
Mr Albanese says he expects the scheme will take hundreds of thousands of guns off the streets.
"The government is proposing that states and territories will be responsible for the collection, processing and payment to individuals for surrendered firearms. The Australian Federal Police will then be responsible for the destruction of these firearms."
Gun Control Australia President, Tim Quinn, has welcomed the announcement, saying that under current laws, some people in suburban Sydney own up to 300 firearms.
He has told SBS limiting the number of guns per person is just the start of what needs to happen.
"We should be looking at improving the way that we license guns; and taking away certain aspects around recreational shooting."
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The New South Wales Premier has confirmed legislation will be introduced to a recalled state parliament on Monday to deal with mass protests and gun reform.
Chris Minns says that under the changes, no court will be able to overrule the decision to ban public gatherings - and police will be able to declare specific areas restricted for a period of time with the agreement of the police minister when a terror incident is declared.
"Police will have access to existing powers to move people on where their behaviour presents or causes harassment or intimidation or obstructs traffic."
The other big change will be on firearms rules, with the government to introduce a cap of four firearms per individual, and reclassifying certain weapons to limit access.
New South Wales police and counter-terrorism minister Yasmin Catley says the laws are about putting safety first.
"People need to remember owning a gun is a privilege, it is not a right, and that privilege must never, ever outweigh community safety. These reforms ensure there is no ambiguity when it comes to public safety."
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Meanwhile, police in New South Wales are reviewing evidence after the arrest of seven men in Sydney's south west on Thursday.
Dramatic video shows heavily armed Tactical Operations Unit officers confronting the men from Victoria in Liverpool - who are all known to police.
The group remains in custody after a magistrate approved a police application to hold them without charge under counter-terrorism laws, until Friday night.
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon says the justification for their ongoing detention no longer exists, and that they may be released, then monitored.
"Whilst this specific threat posed by the males is unknown, I can say that the potential of a violent offence being committed was such that we were not prepared to tolerate the risk and interdict accordingly. The information received was that Bondi may have been one of a number of locations that the males were intending to attend."
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The Queensland government will continue its ban on gender affirming care for teens in the state after an independent review into the system found the evidence base was extremely limited.
The Crisafulli government had put a pause on the use of puberty suppression and gender affirming hormones for children and adolescents in Queensland public hospitals while the review by Professor Ruth Vine was completed.
Health Minister Tim Nicholls now says it has considered the report and decided to continue the ban, which he argues follows similar moves in other countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Finland.
The pause will remain in place until the results of the PATHWAYS TRIAL in the United Kingdom are known - in 2031.
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Officials in Honduras have begun a manual count of votes from November's presidential election.
The National Electoral Council is overseeing the count, which is being broadcast live to ensure transparency.
This count could end up overturning the 43,000 vote lead held by Trump-backed conservative Nasry Afura, over centre-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla.
Incumbent President Xiomara Castro says she is committed to a fair election.
"To respect the will and sovereignty of the people, vote by vote, from the 19,167 presidential records, I will respect, I repeat, even in these difficult circumstances, the winner proclaimed by the National Electoral Council."
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The sale of Tiktok in the United States is finally a done deal.
Parent company ByteDance has now signed binding agreements with three major investors to sell over 80 per cent of the company's U-S assets to American and global interests.
The deal is a major step toward resolving years of uncertainty after a US government ban.
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To sport now and in football news,
Melbourne City remain cautiously optimistic Mathew Leckie can be back playing by the end of the A-League Men's season after undergoing successful hip surgery.
The Socceroos veteran is sidelined following the operation designed to get to the bottom of his recurring hamstring and other soft tissue injuries.
City has so far been unwilling to put a timeline on his return.
