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Asked if she expected to speak to the prime minister, the Greens senator said “I hope so”:

double quotation markThe government said they weren’t prepared to move at all, and now here they are. So, I mean … they’re playing games here.

Their own backbenchers know it’s not strong enough.

Hanson-Young said she would not vote for what was “on the table at the moment”

double quotation markIf you are not prepared to do what’s needed here, well, we’ll take this out of your hands and we’ll do it in the Senate ourselves.

Key events

• 4m ago

  Jetstar and Qatar Airways plane involved in near-miss while taxiing at Sydney airport

• 27m ago

  Wilson raises concerns about gambling ads reaching children

• 37m ago

  Ben Carroll vows to boost Victoria’s school funding to meet Gonski standards

• 1h ago

  Labor ‘playing games’ on gambling reforms, Sarah Hanson-Young says

• 1h ago

  Bird flu detected in inland NSW, on the Murray Darling Basin

• 2h ago

  Good morning

Jetstar and Qatar Airways plane involved in near-miss while taxiing at Sydney airport

A Jetstar pilot was forced to brake suddenly when a Qatar Airways plane came into “close proximity” while the other plane was taxiing at Sydney airport this morning.

Guardian Australia understands a Jetstar cabin crew member was injured in the incident, and was treated by paramedics.

The Jetstar flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast was taxiing out from its bay at Sydney airport this morning when the incident occurred.

A Jetstar spokesperson said:

double quotation markOur aircraft was following instructions by Air Traffic Control when the pilots were forced to brake firmly after another aircraft came in close proximity.

We have commenced an investigation into the incident.

Josh Butler

Coalition demands NDIS changes focus on fraud, corruption

Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson also called on the government to focus more on fraud and corruption issues in the NDIS, as the Coalition and Labor negotiate on changes to the disability scheme.

The government’s bill is being examined by a parliamentary committee, with a report due this coming Friday. Labor may seek to bring that bill back on for debate and vote in the second week of this coming parliamentary sitting.

Wilson accused the government of “an ongoing tolerance” to fraud in the system. The NDIS minister, Jenny McAllister, was on News24 this morning also, and we’ll get you some of her contributions shortly.

He said:

double quotation markWe have people who are awarding either packages to people when they shouldn’t be used, we’re having people taking advantage of the system and we know this is being exposed.

And so as a consequence we’ve seen this massive growth continue to go on and we need to make sure that that’s the focus, not the targeting of the clients. You know, if you go out to voters in Australia, there are a lot of people who are on disability support packages who are very nervous about their future and it’s because of how this government has looked at reforms and they feel like they’re being targeted, not the fraudsters.

Wilson raises concerns about gambling ads reaching children

Josh Butler

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, says he’s concerned that gambling advertisers could still be able to reach children, under the government’s proposed wagering reforms.

Labor’s gambling bill has little support outside the government, with the Coalition, Greens and other cross benchers opposed. Amendments are being discussed to win support in the parliament, and while Wilson wouldn’t say which specific areas the Coalition was negotiating on, he said the bill may not go far enough to reduce harms for kids.

Speaking to News24 this morning, Wilson said:

double quotation markWe’re not wowsers, we do believe in protecting children, particularly from harm.

Under the government’s proposed bill, it doesn’t limit the capacity to advertise to children and that’s something that I’m concerned about, making sure that we’ve got the measures that are consistent, appropriate, and also reflecting the changing nature of technology

Wilson noted many people are watching sport on other platforms beyond TV. The proposed gambling rules include a quirk where streaming platforms will be able to show more ads during breaks in play, if those platforms offer a “triple lock” function which includes an opt-out feature.

“What we need to make sure is that the interests are in alignment, we’re protecting children and of course we’re making sure that measures are taken so that people aren’t taken advantage of,” Wilson said.

Ben Carroll vows to boost Victoria’s school funding to meet Gonski standards

Victoria’s new premier, Ben Carroll, says the state government will boost its funding for public schools before the November election, and opening up a pathway for a federal cash injection.

In an interview with the ABC, Carroll pledged to increase funding of the state’s public schools by 5% – fulfilling its obligations under the former Gonski plan.

Victoria’s school funding model lags behind other jurisdictions, with the state only paying 70% of the Schools Resource Standard – an estimate of a school’s funding based on student’s needs – and the federal government contributing 20%.

Under the national agreement, Carroll’s pledge means Canberra will match the funding increase to close the gap.

Carroll said he had discussed the funding increase with Anthony Albanese.

The teacher’s union has demanded the state fully fund public schools as part of its drawn-out pay dispute with the Victorian government.

ABC’s Insiders is marking its 25th birthday with a special anniversary edition this morning.

The show’s founding host, Barrie Cassidy, has returned to the couch for the first time since he retired in 2019.

Reflecting on how Australian politics has changed since the show began in 2001, Cassidy says:

double quotation markYou’ve had that degrading of the support for the major parties, 80% to 50% in the life of Insiders, and that’s quite extraordinary. It happened kind of like bankruptcy – slowly, and then all at once.

The all-at-once period was pretty much just in the lead-up to the last election.

(A reminder that you can hear more from Cassidy every week on the Guardian’s Back to Back Barries podcast.)

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was also asked about her call for a moratorium on building of data centres until there are the proper laws in place to regulate their impact on the country’ energy, water use, environment and communities.

Asked about the proposal, Hanson-Young said:

double quotation markI want an ironclad guarantee for the Australian people: their power bills won’t go up, their water is going to be protected, their jobs are going to be protected, and that they get some type of community benefit because without those things there is going to be no social license and it’s evaporating very quickly.

Labor ‘playing games’ on gambling reforms, Sarah Hanson-Young says

Hanson-Young says she had spoken to the communications minister, Anika Wells, about amendments to the government’s gambling reform but has not spoken directly to Anthony Albanese.

Asked if she expected to speak to the prime minister, the Greens senator said “I hope so”:

double quotation markThe government said they weren’t prepared to move at all, and now here they are. So, I mean … they’re playing games here.

Their own backbenchers know it’s not strong enough.

Hanson-Young said she would not vote for what was “on the table at the moment”

double quotation markIf you are not prepared to do what’s needed here, well, we’ll take this out of your hands and we’ll do it in the Senate ourselves.

Greens call on Albanese to put ‘cards on the table’ as gambling negotiations continue

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has called for the Albanese government to put its “cards on the table” as part of a potential strengthening of its gambling reform.

Labor is expected to face strong opposition from gambling giants if it accedes to Coalition and Greens demands for a tough new ban on financial inducements for betting, as part of closely watched Senate deal making expected within days.

Speaking to the ABC’s Insiders, Hanson-Young said:

double quotation markIf the government’s now willing to move on some things … good. But the devil’s going to be in the detail. And what I say to the prime minister and to the government is, put your cards on the table.

Josh Taylor

SA premier meets Apple chief following social media ban

The premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas has visited Apple’s headquarters and met with outgoing chief executive Tim Cook in the United States.

Malinauskas posted on LinkedIn that Cook was keen to discuss the under-16s social media ban, which kicked off with South Australia’s proposal last year before the federal government adopted a national approach.

Apple has been keen to credit Australia with inspiring planned changes to parental controls on iPhones and iPads, with Cook calling the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, earlier this year when Apple announced the changes.

Documents released under freedom of information laws this week suggest the pair discussed the possibility of Albanese visiting Apple’s California headquarters on his next trip to the United States.

The documents surrounding the call between Albanese and Cook reveal an unnamed employee at Apple following up the call in late June and enquiring about “the possibility of the PM visiting Apple Park in Cupertino (California) when he visits the US for the UN General Assembly.”

Any potential visit by Albanese to Apple may come after Cook steps down as chief executive, and is replaced by John Ternus on 1 September, as the UN general assembly’s 81st session commences on 8 September.

Bird flu detected in inland NSW, on the Murray Darling Basin

Petra Stock

New South Wales recorded its first cases of H5 bird flu in two local birds on Saturday, including one found near Wentworth on the Murray-Darling Basin.

Jack Gough, chief executive of the Invasive Species Council, said:

double quotation markThat should be ringing alarm bells for governments because it suggests it could soon be spreading among inland bird colonies ahead of spring breeding season.

Birds in the Murray-Darling basin are already in decline due to feral animals, insufficient water to critical wetlands and the loss of habitat - now they have a deadly disease to contend with.

Samples from two deceased greater crested terns in NSW – the other found near Narooma on the south coast – tested positive at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness.

On Saturday, a further 28 positive cases were confirmed in South Australia, bringing the state’s total to 147. An additional 13 suspected cases were also detected, including an ibis in Adelaide and a cormorant in Carpenter Rocks on the Limestone Coast.

Victoria confirmed 10 positive cases on Saturday, all from greater crested terns in south-west Victoria and Clyde in south-east Melbourne.

As of 3pm yesterday, Australia had a total of 215 H5 bird flu cases nationally.

Good morning

This is Adeshola Ore here to take you through today’s news as it unfolds.

Let’s get into it. %!s()

The reason is clear the second you walk into the neighbourhood: it stinks.

On 17 June, a fire destroyed a large cold-storage warehouse in the area, leaving behind some 85 million lb (39 million kg) of rotting food, including beef, pork, poultry and seafood.

Nearly two months later, residents of Boyle Heights say the clean-up has taken a lot longer than expected, and they've grown frustrated with the pungent odour hovering over the area.

"It smells really bad, like really bad ... to the point that you want to throw up," says Mesha, a 37-year-old security guard stationed outside a marijuana dispensary.

She likens the smell to that of a dead body.

Lineage, the company that operated the warehouse, said that as of Monday about 80% of the food waste had been removed. But city officials said this week that the company's response "has fallen short", and that they have issued public health and safety violation notices.

"It's been tough," Sicairos, 30, says. After shutting down his coffee stand for two weeks because of the fire, Brew Sting has reopened - but the demand hasn't been the same.

He says flies have been swarming relentlessly over the past weeks, since the food that was stored in the warehouse began rotting.

The warehouse workers that would previously line up to buy coffee haven't been showing up over the past two months.

"Due to the fire, obviously most of them aren't here," Sicairos says. "So we lost those customers, but we also lost customers that don't want to be around the smell, the smoke, the flies. It's understandable. But we have to keep paying our bills, so we're still here."

One cannot walk through the area, which is mostly a warehouse district surrounded by homes, without swatting away countless flies, both big and small, including black, blue and green ones.

As Sicairos packs up his coffee stand for the day, flies are landing on his tables and his body. He acknowledges that patrons don't want to see flies when they're purchasing food or drinks to consume.

A city-commissioned inspection report found that waste and high temperatures at the warehouse could speed up the breeding of flies capable of infecting wounds in both people and animals, a local NBC affiliate reported, external.

The report from a pest control company said it could put people and animals with open wounds at risk of contracting disease.

People in the community have also reported seeing large rats, and they say traps placed along sidewalks aren't big enough to hold them.

Many residents blame the city for what they deem an inadequate response to the fire and a lack of transparency and resources.

"I understand why residents are frustrated," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told the BBC in a statement. "They deserve transparency, clear communication, and meaningful support. Since day one, I have been in Boyle Heights listening to residents, meeting with families, and making sure their voices guide our response."

The mayor, who is up for re-election this year, said she directed city departments to work with local, state, federal, nonprofit and community partners to deliver immediate support and solutions.

Bass has also issued executive orders to mobilise resources and speed up the cleaning process. The city says they and other local partners have brought mobile health clinics to the neighbourhood and delivered thousands of air purifiers.

Late last month, the county's public health department fined Lineage for "unsanitary and nuisance" conditions with $500-a-day citations.

The mayor has given Lineage a 13 August deadline to complete the cleanup. The company said on Monday they are 80% of the way there - up from 60% on July 31.

"Our goal is to complete bulk food waste removal from the site next week," a Lineage spokesperson told the BBC on Wednesday. They expect to spend between $80 million to $100 million on the cleanup.

Outside the warehouse, dozens of workers in hard hats and neon vests can be seen tackling the effort, some wearing face coverings. Officials with the local air quality authority and sheriff's office were also on site.

In an letter shared on Tuesday, Bass said the company's response "has fallen short".

"Residents, public agencies, and elected officials have repeatedly sought timely information regarding the cleanup, remediation, environmental monitoring, and recovery," Bass wrote in the letter to Lineage shareholders. "Too often, those requests have been met with delayed communication, limited transparency, and insufficient public engagement".

The mayor also directed city departments to halt plans to rebuild the warehouse "until the health and safety of the community are protected".

Lineage, which is a temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company, says "cleanup crews are working around the clock to remove food waste, clear debris and dismantle damaged sections of the structure.

"However, this is a highly complex operation," they say, adding that reducing odours is a "key priority" in their cleanup effort. %!s()

MySpace, once the world's biggest social network, is flirting with a comeback. Its owners, brothers Tim and Chris Vanderhook, say they plan to relaunch the platform, though no date or product details have been announced.

A spokesperson for Viant, which owns MySpace, says the company does not have any updates to share "at this time."

But just the idea of a comeback has stirred nostalgia among people who remember the MySpace days of more than 20 years ago as a place where personal pages were messy, loud, and deeply individual.

It has also caught the attention of creators like Melissa Kristin, a TikTok star with more than 900,000 followers, who grew up on MySpace and remembers it as a more personal digital space.

"It was all very much your own little world, your own corner of the internet," Kristin says.

That sense of autonomy shaped how she expresses herself online today, and she believes that a revived MySpace should avoid the algorithmic, pay-to-play dynamics that dominate modern platforms.

"It would be best served for personal connection rather than performance," she says.

"Just to recapture that high we felt as millennials when we got all the friend requests and comments. It helped us feel connected."

MySpace launched in 2003 and quickly became a cultural hub, helping artists like Arctic Monkeys, Adele, and Nicki Minaj find early audiences.

But its highly customised pages, auto-playing music, and busy layouts eventually became a liability.

Facebook's cleaner, simpler design pulled users away, and MySpace struggled through redesigns and ownership changes before fading from mainstream use.

Marketing experts say any comeback will depend on learning from that history.

Dr Alexa Fox, a marketing professor at the University of Akron, says the platform was a "first mover" in social media, but one that became too complex for many users.

She believes MySpace's original strengths – music, creativity, and personal expression – could still resonate, but only with more accessible design.

"It could be more user-friendly, with less coding involved," she says.

Alex Mills, a social media strategist who has led campaigns for Spotify and Adobe, says the very thing people are nostalgic for, a feed without algorithms, was also "the thing that killed it."

"People still want a feed," Mills says. "They just want a better one than the ones optimising for rage bait."

Kevin McClary, head of performance marketing at Gorilla 76, believes MySpace should not try to compete directly with Meta, TikTok, or X.

"They can be successful and sustainable even as a niche platform," he says, arguing it should be rooted in 2000s culture.

McClary says leaning into MySpace's music identity could be a smart move, from profile songs to 2000s-themed festivals and merchandise.

He believes the audience could be broader than former users, with younger generations embracing the early-2000s aesthetics they never experienced firsthand.

"You see younger generations now buying old point-and-shoot digital cameras, MP3 players, even film cameras," McClary says. "They clearly have an interest in the past."

MySpace could meet users where that trend is growing by becoming a place rooted in a "specific time," he says. He noted that creators making 2000s-style content on other platforms are often at the "mercy" of algorithms.

Fox agrees that differentiation is essential.

"MySpace shouldn't hang their hat on features other platforms already dominate," Fox says, pointing to Reels and short-form videos.

Popular formats can be added, she says, but they should not define the platform.

She also sees an opportunity to offer a calmer experience. Today's feeds, she notes, are "algorithmic-driven AI, constantly in your face."

A platform where users have more control, or simply feel less overwhelmed, could stand out in a crowded market.

For fans like Hawkins and Kristin, the appeal is emotional as much as practical. Both say they would return if MySpace kept its original spirit.

For now, its comeback exists mostly as a promise – a reminder of a time when social media felt a little less polished and a lot more personal.

"Are you still gonna have that same feeling?" Hawkins says. "Are you still gonna feel like, 'oh my god, somebody loves me?'" %!s()

But with records showing that nine out of 10 French wildfires are started by humans, the government in Paris is trying to attribute blame - although it is itself accused of being underprepared for the infernos that have now scorched more than 300,000 acres this summer.

The interior ministry has announced 420 arrests of people alleged to have either started the fires deliberately or by accident. Among them are 166 minors.

In one case, a 23-year-old man has been accused of deliberately starting 10 fires in the space of five days in the south-eastern Var area last month. He faces 15 years in prison and a €150,000 (£128,000) fine, if convicted.

Many others have been tried and immediately sentenced, such as a man who received a three-year jail sentence for starting three recent fires in the Raon-L'Étape forest in the Vosges region.

"Only a few square metres of vegetation went up in smoke," noted L'Est Républicain, the newspaper that reported the story.

Other prosecutions have been perceived as heavy-handed and unjust. A homeless man and someone with severe autism have reportedly been handed jail terms for throwing cigarette butts.

"I was amazed at the number of arrests, it feels excessive," admits Muriel Gestas, a lawyer who has represented several people accused of arson, including two firefighters. She doubts many will lead to a conviction.

The newspaper Le Monde is also unconvinced. It questions to what extent police have examined these cases, given the short time frame.

The authorities' silence on the details - the specific charges, notably whether they involve intent and how the numbers compare with past seasons - rules out any meaningful comparison with previous years, it argues.

But Bordeaux prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul told Le Monde that a tough approach was justified by current circumstances.

"The conditions for a charge of endangering lives are met for those who throw a cigarette butt or light a barbecue in wooded areas. It only takes a tiny spark for it to start," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Working out how a fire started is, unsurprisingly, not easy.

"In periods of drought such as this one, all you need is a simple lighter," explains Eric Dufayet, an officer who investigates fires.

Once a fire is out, Eric's first task is to map its outline along the edge of the burnt vegetation, then trace it back to its point of origin. If the wind has been steady, that outline often forms a "V" shape. From there, his team works backwards along the path the flames took.

"If someone deliberately starts a fire, they may not have used only one device," he says. It improves the chances of a DNA or fingerprint sample being found.

Experts believe arson accounts for only a small fraction of fires. Most are believed to be accidental, with sparks potentially coming from construction work, faulty electrical equipment, cigarette butts and barbecues.

"With cigarettes, it's called the '30' rule," says Eric Dufayet. To start a fire, he explains, there must be "a temperature of at least 30C (86F), a maximum of 30% humidity, wind of less than 30km/h (19mph), and at least 30% of the cigarette unburnt."

In the current drought, he says it is even easier. If those conditions are met, a fire can easily spread, and fast.

According to Michel Lejoyeux, a professor of psychiatry and addictive behaviour at Paris 7 University, people who start fires fall into three categories: those who are careless, those who benefit - with an insurance payout, for example - and pyromaniacs.

"The pyromaniac doesn't get money, has no spirit of revenge, has no utility of the fire, but he likes the fire," he says.

However, pyromania is a rare psychiatric disorder that Lejoyeux says is very difficult to diagnose, and accounts for few arson convictions.

Lawyer Muriel Gestas, who has handled several such cases, says some firefighters alleged to have started fires may have wanted to be seen as saviours. For others - notably volunteers earning tax-free overtime - the motive may be financial.

Amid concerns over how officials are pursuing suspects, broader worries about wildfires are far from abating. Forecasts suggest France's next heatwave is only days away.

President Emmanuel Macron says criticism should not be the priority right now. "We will have to replant and rebuild a different kind of forest because we must adapt to the structural conditions of climate change," he said this week.

"The time for reviewing lessons learned will come," he insisted. "In the meantime, the country must remain united."

Even so, the damage these fires have inflicted on the environment, hundreds of homes, tourism, local businesses and air quality has left the French public with a lot of questions. %!s()

Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that the pact does not identify Iran, or any other country, as a common threat.

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The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Friday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, stating that an armed attack on one of the three countries would be considered an attack on them all.

“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” Fidan told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency, adding that countries that do not attack the signatories would not be considered targets.

An Article 5-style commitment

Fidan described the pact as “technically” similar to NATO’s Article 5 collective-defence clause, under which an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all.

But the response would depend on the circumstances.

A country under attack would have to request assistance and specify what kind of support it needed, Fidan said. That could range from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or the deployment of military units.

The alliance will also establish political and military committees, bringing together foreign and defence ministers and military chiefs, as well as a secretariat in Saudi Arabia.

Fidan said the three countries would work on joint training, intelligence sharing, logistics, threat assessments and military interoperability.

Defence-industry cooperation is also expected to be a notable part of the pact. Fidan said it was one of the main issues discussed by the three leaders in Mecca, including how the countries could benefit from each other’s military technologies.

The Turkish minister said preparations for the agreement had been under way for nearly two years and eight months, suggesting it was not drawn up simply in response to the current tensions involving Iran.

Iran pushes back

Despite Ankara’s assurances, some Iranian officials have questioned the agreement and warned Saudi Arabia against relying on its new partners for security.

Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of Iran’s parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said Saudi leaders should understand that cooperation with Turkiye and Pakistan would not guarantee their security.

Another commission member, Ebrahim Rezaei, similarly dismissed the pact as a “paper agreement”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi did not directly mention the agreement in a message on X on Friday, but he called on regional states to rely on themselves and pursue what he described as “true brotherhood”.

At the same time, he stressed the strength and readiness of Iran’s armed forces.

Egypt could join next

Fidan portrayed the agreement as part of a broader effort to give regional countries greater responsibility for their own security.

“External hegemons coming into the region do not solve the problems; they make them more acute,” he told Anadolu.

He described Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as the “core countries” of the initiative and made clear that Ankara wants the arrangement to expand.

“Under our president’s vision, we should not remain limited to three countries,” Fidan said. “We should grow and, if necessary, bring all countries under this umbrella.”

Several countries have already expressed interest, according to Fidan, who said he expected Egypt, which he described as a “natural partner”, to join once outstanding technical issues were resolved.

For now, many of the practical details remain to be worked out, including how the three militaries would coordinate in a crisis.

But the planned committees, permanent secretariat and focus on interoperability and defence-industry cooperation suggest the pact is intended to develop beyond a simple mutual defence declaration. %!s()