source : the age
Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 4. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.
- One Nation leader Pauline Hanson barred The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from her press conference in Melbourne yesterday, as the party’s new leader in the Victorian upper house Warren Pickering threatened legal action against journalists for “character assassination attempts”.
- Environment Minister Murray Watt has said Australians should expect more mass mortality events in Australian wildlife caused by H5N1 bird flu. As of yesterday, the Department of Agriculture confirmed there were 74 cases of the strain in Australia.
- Evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s contentious gambling advertising package yesterday aimed to pressure senators to ban betting inducements, which are designed to lure betters back to gambling platforms.
- US President Donald Trump has told Iran that a round of newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.
- The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.
The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.
Nikolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza, held “constructive and detailed” talks with the prime minister and his team, the Board of Peace said in a statement.
“The goal is clear and is not in question: the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance,” it said.
According to two people familiar with the meeting, Mladenov also pressed Netanyahu to halt Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. Mladenov and his team, including senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, are pressuring Israel to stop striking Gaza as they push ahead with the agreement to decommission the weapons held by Hamas.
President Donald Trump announced the agreement, which is part of a broader ceasefire deal reached last year, on Friday (Australian time). After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had “serious security concerns” and that it shared those with the United States. It also ramped up its strikes in Gaza, killing 17 people overnight Saturday and into Sunday, according to local health officials.
AP
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth has responded to Pauline Hanson’s decision to ban The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from One Nation’s Melbourne press conference yesterday, and said a part of working in politics was fronting up to uncomfortable questions.
“She says often she has nothing to hide. As a politician, you have to turn up and answer questions. And so, by saying you’ve got nothing to hide, I don’t know why she would want to bar ABC, The Age, the Guardian. I’m not sure who was left at her press conference,” Rishworth told Nine this morning.
“Quite frankly, you need to be accountable. You need to turn up. Sometimes the questions are uncomfortable … Well, often the questions are uncomfortable, and that is the sport of politics, isn’t it?”
Yesterday, One Nation named its first candidates for the Victorian state election, which will take place in November.
Two people have died in the cyclospora outbreak in the US state of Michigan, state health officials have announced, confirming the first deaths in the country related to the microscopic parasite.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday (US time) both people had underlying health conditions that may have been affected by the intestinal illness and dehydration. The department said it would not provide additional information about the deaths.
Cyclospora is a microscopic, spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhoea “with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks tend to occur most often in the late spring and summer.
Federal health officials have identified lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in nine states as a source of the widespread outbreak. As of late July, the number of cases linked to the lettuce was 1947, including at least 98 people who had to be hospitalised, according to the CDC.
The agency has said other “brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels” could be tied to the outbreak as the investigation continues.
AP
Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume remained adamant this morning that the Liberal Party would not consider merging with One Nation as polls continue to favour Pauline Hanson’s party over the Coalition.
“One Nation hasn’t announced a single policy yet between them … One Nation isn’t the solution,” she told the Today show.
Yesterday, Hanson announced former Liberal Party member Colleen Harkin as one of her party’s eight candidates in the November Victorian election.
Harkin quit the Liberal Party to join One Nation in June.
US President Donald Trump has told Iran that the newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.
Trump, speaking at the Oval Office, said he expects negotiations that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address United States’ concerns about its nuclear program will begin in the next day or two.
The US President has made a habit of threatening strikes on Iran only to dangle the prospect of a last-minute diplomatic reprieve.
Talks between the US and Iran are critical to ending the months long conflict and reviving stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.
Iran’s foreign ministry said it’s negotiating with Oman, not the US prompting Trump on Monday (US time) to criticise the country’s leadership, which has grown increasingly divided over the war’s endgame.
Whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking,” Trump maintained.
AP
Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 4. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.
- One Nation leader Pauline Hanson barred The Age, the ABC and The Guardian from her press conference in Melbourne yesterday, as the party’s new leader in the Victorian upper house Warren Pickering threatened legal action against journalists for “character assassination attempts”.
- Environment Minister Murray Watt has said Australians should expect more mass mortality events in Australian wildlife caused by H5N1 bird flu. As of yesterday, the Department of Agriculture confirmed there were 74 cases of the strain in Australia.
- Evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into Labor’s contentious gambling advertising package yesterday aimed to pressure senators to ban betting inducements, which are designed to lure betters back to gambling platforms.
- US President Donald Trump has told Iran that a round of newly planned talks are its “last chance” to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of military strikes on the country.
- The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the board reached with Hamas.
