TRANSCRIPT:
- Thousands without power in Tasmania thanks to severe storms;
- Tensions rising in the South China Sea over a disputed territory;
- Victoria's Commonwealth Games compensation likely to cover the cost of the event - for the next host.
Over 30,000 people have been left without power amid severe weather in Tasmania.
Provider TasNetworks says there have been more than 280 outages, and that they expect the continued poor weather would likely affect many more.
Gale force winds have been buffeting Tasmania, as well as South Australia and Victoria, in contrast to Queensland which has sweltered in near-record temperatures this week.
The State Emergency Service says they have responded to over 300 incidents in Tasmania within the last 24 hours.
S-E-S Executive Director Mick Lowe says they are attempting to notify people in towns along the Derwent River about the threat of flooding.
"There's a lot of isolated residents right through that area. We've been doing proactive door-knocking through the morning to make sure people are aware of the danger that is coming. And hopefully that situates people so they can make good informed decisions and not be there when potential flood waters and inundation comes in."
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The Philippines and China have accused each other of intentionally ramming vessels in disputed waters of the South China Sea, the latest in an escalating series of clashes in the vital waterway.
It's the fifth altercation in as many weeks.
Beijing maintains that a Filipino ship lifted anchor and deliberately went into a Chinese vessel at 'Sabina Shoal', around 75 nautical miles from the Filipino coast.
But Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela says China blocked a routine resupply mission, with Chinese boats ramming and using water cannons on a fisheries bureau ship.
"We take this with serious concern. That's why through our cognisant department - Department of Foreign Affairs - we have issued statements to the Chinese embassy, and to the embassy of the Philippines in Beijing."
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US Vice President Kamala Harris has condemned a visit by Donald Trump to the Arlington cemetery that's resulted in the US Army making a rare public statement.
Kamala Harris says the whole incident was "a disrespectful stunt".
Federal law and Pentagon policies do not allow political activities in that section of the cemetery where a number of American soldiers are buried, but Trump's campaign took videos and used them for campaign advertising.
The US Army has defended a cemetery employee who was pushed aside at Section 60, saying she acted professionally and was being unfairly attacked by the Trump camp for trying to stop them from taking photos.
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Over a hundred medicines will be available as part of a longer prescription scheme from today.
Under the 60-day prescriptions framework, patients can access two months worth of medication with only a single prescription from their G-P.
Health Minister Mark Butler has confirmed the medications cover a range of conditions including asthma, Parkinson's disease, and chronic depression.
He says the move will be good news for millions of Australians - and won't lead to widespread adverse outcomes.
"At the end of the day, every GP will exercise their clinical judgement with the patient that they know well about whether a 60-day script is advisable or not. And there are many many occasions where GPs are not issuing 60-day scripts, in spite of the fact that the medicine might be eligible for that."
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Shark nets will continue to be used at New South Wales beaches for the next seven months, despite increasing calls for their removal.
They have been set up annually for the new season - which starts today - for more than eight decades at beaches from Wollongong to Newcastle.
Conservation groups have long campaigned against the nets.
They argue they catch and kill far more other sea creatures than sharks, and that there are more humane alternatives available.
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There are calls for a plan to preserve classic Australian video games, on the back of a report that suggests 96 percent are risk of being lost forever.
A survey by the National Film and and Sound Archive of Australia and with The Strong National Museum of Play says most organisations involved in video game preservation are doing it without dedicated staff resources - and that they were twice as likely to hold on to physical software rather than digital titles.
The report says video games are culturally significant - and more international collaboration is needed to stop them from disappearing.
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The compensation Victoria is paying for abandoning the 2026 Commonwealth Games is being touted as enough to bankroll the event for its new host.
Commonwealth Games officials have scrambled to find a replacement host less than two years out - but Glasgow is being touted as the likely city, with the event to be funded almost entirely from the $200 million compensation payout.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has reacted furiously to the story, telling Nine News that the Games could have remained in Australia.
"If you look at the Gold Coast, they were prepared to run this rather than hand it over to someone else because they were going to utilise the legacy infrastructure that was there, which is what Scotland is doing. So, you know, I would have thought the Prime Minister would have weighed in on this and made sure that we weren't internationally embarrassed."
