Key Points
- Ferdinand Marcos declares emergency as hundreds dead and missing in floods
- Environmental law reforms pass the house of representatives with a single amendment
- Manchester City beats Dortmund 4-1 in Champions League football
TRANSCRIPT
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has declared a state of emergency, after Typhoon Kalmaegi left at least 241 people dead or missing.
At least 114 people have been killed, mostly from drowning in flash floods, with 127 still missing, many in the hard-hit central province of Cebu.
The typhoon's onslaught, which affected nearly two million people, displaced more than 560,000 villagers, including nearly 450,000 who were evacuated to emergency shelters.
Mr Marcos's emergency declaration will allow the government to distribute emergency funds faster and prevent food hoarding and overpricing.
The tropical cyclone has since blown out of the archipelago and into the South China Sea.
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The government has passed its environment protection reform bill through the House of Representatives, with an amendment from the crossbench.
The crossbench tried to move 84 amendments with only one accepted - Kate Chaney’s amendment to ensure public reporting on the progress of nature offsets projects.
The Coalition, Greens and some crossbenchers voted against the bill.
Greens leader Larissa Waters says mining and logging companies are cheering the environment reforms on.
"The minerals council is trying to heavy the Coalition to support the government's EPBC environment reforms and it's no wonder because those environment reforms are absolutely gift wrapped for the big miners and the big loggers and we're hearing the bells going where the votes are happening of course on those environment reforms now. And those bells it looks like they're ringing the death knell for nature and the big mining companies will be laughing all the way to the bank."
At this stage, the government does not have the numbers to pass the bill through the Senate.
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The Tasmanian parliament has approved a bill to compensate men convicted for homosexuality under past laws.
The enabling legislation has passed the upper house following its third and final reading after going through the lower house in September 2024.
Every Australian state and territory has a process to remove convictions for historical homosexual offences, but Tasmania has made history by being the first to offer compensation.
Independent MP Ruth Forrest says the scheme shows parliament is serious about working towards healing.
People who were charged are eligible to receive $15,000, people who were convicted $45,000 and those fined or jailed $75,000.
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Labor's reforms to the defence honours system have been scrapped by the Senate, in a rare defeat for the government following backlash from veterans and advocates.
The planned changes would have restricted the number of cases that can be brought before the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal, by imposing a time limit on applications.
This would mean a veteran's acts of bravery could not be considered for an award if 20 years has passed since the event.
Crossbench, Greens amd Coalition senators teamed up to pass a motion to remove the bill from the notice paper, forcing the government to either start the legislative process from the beginning or abandon the bill.
Independent Senator David Pocock says the bill did nothing to help the veteran community.
"We will not deal with a bill that the department admitted that they did no consultation on. A friendless bill. I've heard from veterans about the urgency to send a message to the government that this should not be the priority. Implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into veteran suicide should be the priority."
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Victoria's first ever Indian-born mayor has congratulated New York City's mayor elect, Zohran Mamdani, for his successful campaign and surviving a wave of bigoted attacks.
Mr Mamdani will make history as New York's first Muslim and South Asian mayor after winning in the mayoral elections yesterday.
His campaign centred around the cost-of-living concerns of New York's diverse array of community groups and he's hoping to implement an ambitious universal childcare plan for residents.
Mayor and Councillor of Maribyrnong City Council, Pradeep Tewari, tells S-B-S Hindi he's been inspired by the campaign himself.
"I'm actually deeply inspired by Zohran Mamdani's ascent to become mayor of New York City. His story affirms what I've always believed in that people from diverse backgrounds, immigrants, children of immigrants, communities often overlooked, they can achieve leadership roles in bring fresh perspective to public services. And I think his ictory since a really powerful message of hope and ambition and it reminds us that inclusive, community-centered leadership is not just aspirational but it's practical and necessary in these times."
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In football, Erling Haaland came back to haunt Borussia Dortmund with a clinical finish against his former team, while Phil Foden bagged a brilliant brace as Manchester City cruised to a 4-1 victory in the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola's men are now fourth in the table, with 10 points after four of the eight league-phase games, while Dortmund fell to 14th on seven points.
City were dominant from the outset and England international Foden opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, with Haaland doubling the lead seven minutes later.
Foden completed his double in the 57th minute in almost identical fashion to his first, bending a curling shot just inside the far post.
Guardiola says he's pleased to see Foden back in scoring form.
"Four goals is nice. I'm happy it's not just Erling who's scoring goals. Phil is back and you know how many times, how many years we've seen these kinds of goals from Phil. Phil is fantastic and at the end we could have scored even more goals, I'm really pleased."
