- The government imposes more targeted sanctions on five Iranians
- Card surcharges to be scrutinised
- The Socceroos hoping to break new ground against Japan
The Australian Government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians in response to Tehran's actions in the Middle East.
The individuals include Iran's Defence minister, two Directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organisation, which is connected to Iran’s missile program that Australia considers to be material threat to regional and international security.
The Albanese Government has now sanctioned 200 Iran-linked individuals and entities across multiple sanctions frameworks, including almost 100 individuals and entities with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for what she has described as its "reckless and destabilising" actions.
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Israel's military says it will investigate a Hezbollah drone attack that hit its military base in central Israel, killing four soldiers and injuring over 60 people.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the drone attack, saying it's a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Lebanon's Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari says his army will still examine the incident thoroughly.
"We will learn and we will investigate the incident about how an unmanned air vehicle infiltrated (Israeli airspace) without warning and hit a base here. The UAV threat is a threat that we have faced since the beginning of the war. We are required to provide better protection. We will investigate this incident. We will learn and improve our role to better protect our soldiers and the citizens of the state Israel."
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The United Nations has condemned an Israeli attack on a Gaza hospital, which has killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war.
More than two dozen people have sustained burns in the blaze that broke out after the attack on the Al-Aqsa Hospital.
The Israeli military says the strike in Gaza targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence.
But United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the attack disturbing.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says humanitarian staff are assessing the damage to the hospital, which has been used as a polio vaccination site.
"The Al-Aqsa hospital was also meant to be used as one of the polio vaccination sites. Out of the hundreds of displaced families sheltering in the courtyard, some 40 families were affected, half of whom lost their children and other belongings in the fire. Despite all of this, the second round of the polio vaccination campaign began in the middle area of the Gaza Strip today."
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Card surcharges will soon be scrutinised under a crackdown aimed at reducing costs for small businesses and customers.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be given an extra $2.1 million to probe fees on debit and credit cards, with the federal government threatening an outright ban.
The watchdog's probe is being conducted separately to the Reserve Bank's own review into merchant card payment costs and surcharging.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government is prepared to ban debit card surcharging from the start of 2026, pending further consultation by the Reserve Bank.
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Nearly half of low-income households in Australia are experiencing food insecurity, with regional and single-parent families more at risk.
A report from charity Foodbank has found that in the past year, nearly a million Australian households have struggled to secure enough to eat, with parents skipping meals or going entire days without food to shield children from hunger.
The report says single-parent families are the hardest hit with over two-thirds of them facing food shortages.
Foodbank says that 3.7 million households in total have experienced food insecurity, with cost of living pressures the most common reason.
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In football,
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic is confident the team is capable of snatching a groundbreaking away win over Japan - and kickstarting their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The Socceroos face Japan's Samurai Blue, the world's No.16-ranked team, at Saitama Stadium tonight.
They have never beaten Japan on home soil, and last beat them in 2009.
Forward Mitch Duke says he is determined to snap his goal-scoring drought.
"It has been a good international career to date, but I am not satisfied with what I have done yet. I feel like I still have got a lot more I want to achieve. And being a striker, you always want to score goals - and it being an important part to helping us to win games. For me, I haven't been happy, I haven't scored enough goals as of late. And I want to rectify that - and change that."
