Online harassment and intimidation has been directed at witnesses who have appeared before the anti-Semitism royal commission, with at least one incident referred to police.

The commission is probing the intelligence and law enforcement response leading up to the  Bondi Beach terror attack on December 14 which claimed the lives of 15 innocent people. 

In a first block of hearings, witnesses from the Jewish community gave evidence about their experiences of anti-Semitism.

Commissioner Virginia Bell opened Tuesday’s hearing with a warning to those engaging in online harassment and intimidation of witnesses.

“The commission is keeping a close eye on these instances and recording these offensive social media posts,” she said. 

“Quite what this undiluted level of hatred and bigotry directed towards members of the Jewish community is thought to benefit by those who post these remarks is lost on me.

“The commission has as one of its principal objects understanding and assessing the lived experience of anti-Semitism by members of the Jewish community and it is being informed by conduct of this character.”

In the lead-up to the attack, NSW Police were warned by Jewish security group, CSG, that a heightened atmosphere of anti-Semitism made a terror attack on the community likely.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker, who commands the counter-terrorism squad, told the commission on Monday she accepted a threat assessment should have been conducted for all Hanukkah events.

One of the recommendations made by the commission in an interim report released in April was that Jewish community gatherings be subject to tighter security arrangements.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess appeared as the first witness on Monday, telling the commission Jewish holy events were identified as attractive targets for terrorists months before the Bondi Beach massacre. 

Mr Burgess said it was extremely hard to detect such attacks if people were not discussing plans with a broader circle, including at prayer groups.

“We aren’t all-seeing or all-knowing and we don’t aspire to be,” he said.

NSW Premier Chris Minns acknowledged the Bondi attack was an intelligence failure but defended the record of law enforcement agencies in preventing similar attacks.

He also pushed back on concerns a lack of communication between state and federal counterterrorism authorities was creating cracks for bad actors.

“We’ve clearly had a giant law enforcement and intelligence failure in December … we need to correct and make better,” he told media on Tuesday.

“These are law enforcement agencies that work with sophisticated technology and have had success in the past. 

“You often don’t read about it because they’ve acted before someone’s committed horrible terrorism.”

Responding to a report by the Daily Telegraph that authorities were warned about one of the shooters via a national security hotline as early as 2007, Mr Minns said it looked like warnings were missed.

“That’s a very concerning piece of evidence that presumably will be fully investigated by the royal commission and we want to get to the bottom of it,” he said.

A second group of women and children linked to Islamic State are expected to face charges when they arrive back in Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed seven women and 12 children have made plans to travel from Syria to Australia, after spending years in a Syrian refugee camp.

The so-called “ISIS brides”, who are due to arrive in Australia on Tuesday evening, are expected to face charges upon their return.

“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Mr Burke said in a statement.

“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation.

“Any members of this cohort who have committed crimes can expect to face the full force of the law.”

Mr Burke said intelligence agencies had been preparing since 2014 for a return home of people linked to the terrorist group Islamic State.

The group originally travelled to the Middle East with men who sought to fight for Islamic State before the caliphate was toppled in 2019.

“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” Mr Burke said.

Their impending arrival follows an earlier group of four women and nine children who returned to Australia at the beginning of May.

Three of the women in that group were arrested upon arrival and remain in custody.

Two are facing charges relating to slavery, and the other was charged with joining a terrorist organisation and travelling to a declared conflict zone.

Europe is baking under unseasonal heat that’s shattering temperature records and prompting government warnings after deaths were reported at amateur sports events in France.

The French sports minister, Marina Ferrari, posted condolences to the loved ones of a runner who died on Sunday in a Paris race.

Le Parisien newspaper reported that the 53-year-old man suffered a heart attack during the run in the capital’s 20th arrondissement, and that firefighters were unable to revive him.

It wasn’t yet known if the cause of the runner’s death was heat-related, but Ferrari suggested a possible link. Temperatures in Paris went as high as 32C in the afternoon.

“The events that occurred today (Sunday) during running races are a reminder that practising sports in extreme heat requires absolute vigilance,” Ferrari said in an X post.

“My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the runner who died in Paris, as well as with the people who were treated by emergency services.”

In the southeastern city of Lyon, local media Actu Lyon on Monday reported the death of a woman who suffered heat stroke there during another sports competition, also on Sunday.

The national weather service, Meteo France, said temperatures are breaking records for the month of May, soaring past 30C in many parts of the country and forecast to last into the week.

The United Kingdom broke its record Monday for the hottest temperature recorded in May, after a heatwave was declared in several parts of the country.

People sought relief at beaches, parks and searched for shade on the holiday as the temperature hit 34.8C at Kew Gardens in southwest London, breaking the previous record of 32.8C set in 1922 and matched again in 1944.

The UK Health Security Agency has issued its first amber health alert of the year, warning of a rise in deaths, particularly among the elderly, at the hottest times of the day.

Next-level weather wildness is occurring ever more frequently as earth’s warming builds.

Experts say unprecedented and deadly weather extremes that sometimes strike at abnormal times and in unusual places are putting more people in danger.

Energy bills for households and small businesses are forecast to fall by up to 10 per cent across parts of the eastern states.

The final Default Market Offer, which set out the maximum amount retailers can charge on plans, shows price reductions for households and even bigger drops for small businesses.

Household standing offer time-of-use prices will fall by up to 10.7 per cent across South Australia, NSW and Queensland’s southeast.

Small business standing offer time-of-use prices are set to fall by between up to 20.9 per cent.

The Australian Energy Regulator sets the default market offer as a benchmark for residential and small business electricity bills in NSW, southeast Queensland and South Australia.

The government said the 2026-27 determination is the first under a reformed framework designed to bolster protections for customers and deliver a better deal.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said there were three key reasons behind the fall in prices.

These include more renewable energy available and batteries lifting pressure off coal and gas which is used at peak times at night time.

“We’ve got the best sun and wind in the world, and we’re using our sovereign renewables to shield our grid from global energy volatility and to bring down your energy bills,” Mr Bowen said.

“We know energy bills are still too high – because when coal breaks down, your bill goes up – but this news shows steady progress.”

The government has also implemented new consumer rule changes to add extra help for customers.

From July 1, the changes mean plan benefits will have to last the whole contract,  price increases during fixed contracts will be stopped, unfair fees and dodgy discounts will be banned, and price increases will be limited to once a year.

The day is coming when Australians will be able to apply for a home or business loan via artificial intelligence without even speaking to a human.

That’s the view of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which is already eying agents that can complete the income verification and other stages of a borrowing application.

They aren’t quite there yet, but the nation’s biggest bank has taken a step forward after revealing it’s been pilot testing the Commbank Companion, an agentic AI-powered tool that will live inside its mobile banking app.

The tool, the bank says, will allow retail and business customers to ask questions and find information about their goals – like buying a home, financial health, cash flows and savings – using the customers’ own readily available information, completely human-free.

However, the conversational tool won’t be making direct recommendations about bank products, given it’s not meant – or allowed – to substitute for financial advice due to banking industry rules and regulations.

The theory is that the customer will be in control, especially in terms of what they choose to do next, subject to terms and conditions.

This is a big step up from a banking chatbot, CBA says, because the companion can take action as it resolves questions, acting intuitively, as it gets to know you and your likes and preferences.

For example, say “Alex”, 28, wants to buy a home and one weekend sees a property that she likes. In CBA’s world, she would ask the companion how much it’s worth and how to reach her deposit goals, and receive the answers in real time. With a plan now in place, the companion would continue to act as a guide to help Alex save. 

“This certainly takes us beyond … customer-facing chatbots. This goes well beyond that,” general manager of customer channel and data Sam Hemphill said.

CBA claims the companion is the first customer-facing front-end agent to be developed by a big four bank in Australia. Macquarie Bank, which isn’t a big four, offers Q on its app, which it describes as an agentic support tool.

“This is going to become a massively intense competitive space,” CBA’s group head of retail banking services Angus Sullivan said.

“My expectation is that the native app experience will become increasingly a conversational and agentic digital experience at the core of how our customers engage.”

The current banking app is used by more than nine million Australians – about 33 per cent of the population – each day, who on average log on 1.4 times a day, according to CBA data.

The companion is already being tested by 10,000 bank employees, along with select business customers, and will be rolled out in stages.

It’s set to go ‘live’ with thousands of retail and business customers by the end of June.

The CommBank Companion reveal comes ahead of the bank’s AI client conference in Sydney on Tuesday, where the heads of OpenAI, Coles and Canva will be speaking about the outlook for AI adoption.

Creating a formal teal party could lead to messy leadership disputes or force members to vote for policies they don’t agree with, one of Australia’s first teal independents has warned.

Kerryn Phelps, who won the Sydney seat of Wentworth when former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull resigned in 2018, said having a party structure would allow teal independents to share resources and work together on policies but suggested the move could also alienate some supporters.

Multiple independent MPs have left the door open to creating a more formal political alliance – whether that be a party or a more closely aligned grouping – with Mr Turnbull reported to be involved in bringing them together.

Asked about the speculation, Professor Phelps said while some voters wanted independent MPs to remain independent, the political impact of creating a new party would largely depend on its structure.

“A lot depends … whether MPs would retain the ability to represent their constituents rather than the party,” she told AAP.

“I would think at the very least, candidates and party members would have to sign on to aligned values and a set of rules.

“When I stood as an independent in Wentworth, it was the first of these community-based urban independent campaigns that were later labelled as teals. 

“I did not want to be constrained by having to vote for policies I did not agree with or did not think my electorate would support, or leadership disputes or factional dynamics.

“I haven’t yet seen a party model that avoids those concerns.”

To avoid some of those issues, independents could set up a grouping which was a party in name but an alliance in practice, pooling resources but voting independently, Prof Phelps said.

The former MP is best known for spearheading “medevac” legislation, which allowed 135 asylum seekers to temporarily leave offshore detention and travel to Australia for medical treatment.

The passage of the bill in 2018 was the first time a government had been defeated on the floor of the House of Representatives in decades, but the legislation was repealed in late 2019.

Prof Phelps lost her seat at the 2019 election, having served less than a year as an MP.

But in 2022, seven independents swept into parliament under the teal banner.

Sydney MPs Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall are among those who’ve left the door open to creating a more formal party arrangement, but others are sceptical of the idea.

“I’m certainly open to having the conversations, because I think this is the moment that we need to consider what sort of political system is going to best meet the needs of what Australians ask for,” Ms Spender said.

Kooyong MP Monique Ryan and Curtin MP Kate Chaney both said they would remain as community independents, as did regional Victorian MP Helen Haines.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the teals had acted like a political party for years and downplayed speculation moderate Liberals might join them.

Indonesia has blocked predictions market Polymarket as part of its crackdown on online gambling, its ‌communications and digital ministry said, days after the site took bets on ‌a premature end of Prabowo Subianto’s presidency.

Gambling is illegal in ‌Indonesia and authorities have been clamping down on online wagering

Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs official Alexander Sabar said Polymarket was classified by Indonesia as an online gambling platform and ‌its activities “contain betting ‌and speculation ⁠over events that are inconclusive,” therefore violating Indonesian ​law.

Polymarket attracted attention on social media in Indonesia last week after a bet opened on when Prabowo would be “out as president”.

His term expires in 2029.

The wager was launched on ⁠May 21, the day ‌after ​Prabowo announced a major plan to centralise control of Indonesia’s most prized ​commodity exports, such ‌as coal and palm oil.

Prabowo’s administration has been under ​scrutiny from investors this year over its economic policy.

Indonesia’s ​government was combing over all social ‌media accounts affiliated with Polymarket, ministry official Sabar said.

The official said the decision was aimed at protecting the public, whom it urged “not to access or engage in speculative activities based on digital betting”.

“Activities like Polymarket’s involve financial betting and speculation on events with uncertain outcomes, thus violating applicable Indonesian law,” the statement added.

The website maintains the bet titled “Prabowo Subianto out as President of Indonesia by…?”, which has opened the door to speculation, some of which point to May 31, June 30 or December 31 of this year.

Prediction platforms such as Polymarket allow users to profit from predictions on events such as sports and elections, in what is a multibillion-dollar industry. ​

Some opponents, including some US states, have argued prediction markets ​are illegal and unlicensed ⁠under their local laws.

At the end of April, the Brazilian government announced the blocking of prediction market platforms with bets on politics, culture and climate, such as Polymarket, which it considered “illegal” for not complying with current legislation.

with EFE

The WhatsApp accounts of a federal parliamentarian and three staffers were hacked by a presumed foreign state actor, a budget estimates hearing has been told.

The Department of Parliamentary Services blocked the Meta-owned messaging application on all parliamentary web browsers after the phishing attack was reported on March 6, the department’s chief information officer Mike Webb told an inquiry on Monday.

All four accounts were compromised in the same way, Mr Webb said.

The hackers first requested a legitimate verification code be sent to the users’ devices.

They then sent the victims a request to send them the verification code, which the hackers used to log into the account.

“The next step is to link one of their devices, and they essentially become that person from a communication perspective,” Mr Webb said.

Evidence suggests the attack was conducted by a foreign state actor, he said.

“Multiple governments worldwide have issued warnings on this type of attack, including Germany, the Netherlands, the US, a range of other countries,” Mr Webb said.

“So this is targeting our parliamentarians, but it is a genuine global issue.”

After being notified of the breach, the department’s cybersecurity team informed intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate and temporarily blocked WhatsApp from parliament’s IT systems to prevent more users being ensnared in the hackers’ web.

The block was lifted on Sunday night.

Between July 1, 2025 and March 31, the department had detected 46 instances of malware, close to 20,000 phishing attempts and about 1458 cyber alerts, officials said.

Coalition frontbencher James McGrath accused the Albanese government of a lack of leadership on foreign interference and national security.

“This translates to the way departments are being run and their handling of serious situations,” Senator McGrath said.

“This is just the latest failure in a series of events that are becoming far too frequent and putting parliamentarians and their staff at risk.”

The head of Australia’s anti-corruption body has resigned two years before the end of his term amid long-running questions about potential conflicts of interest.

National Anti-Corruption Commissioner Paul Brereton said the ongoing focus on personal matters was drawing attention away from the agency’s work.

The former war crimes investigator had faced repeated questions about potential conflicts of interest because of his ties to the military and his service in the army reserves.

“I believe that the commission’s success is paramount, and not due to any single person,” Mr Brereton said.

“While I will continue to resist any suggestion of impropriety, I have decided that it is time, now that the commission is established and functioning with quality staff and good processes, to step aside and allow a new commissioner to lead it into the next phase of its development into a key and respected component of the integrity architecture of the Commonwealth.”

In October 2025, he stepped away from all corruption referrals related to defence to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.

He has also been criticised for his decision not to investigate referrals related to the robodebt scandal, which was later overturned.

Mr Brereton’s resignation will take effect on July 6, just over three years after he was appointed to a five-year term.

He’s scheduled to face questions at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday.

In his statement, Mr Brereton said the mere existence of the National Anti-Corruption Commission had changed behaviour across the public service.

That had been reinforced by education programs and investigations, he said.

Of the 7264 referrals received in the past three years, more than 92 per cent had been finalised, with 34 investigations under way.

Some of those probes were into current or former politicians and their staff, senior public servants, contractors, consultants and a grants scheme, Mr Brereton said.

The government would choose a new commissioner through a merit-based process, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said.

“I thank Commissioner Brereton for his service as Commissioner of the National Anti-Corruption Commission following his appointment in 2023,” she said.

“Commissioner Brereton has made an invaluable contribution to the establishment of the NACC as its inaugural commissioner.”

Children in a jurisdiction’s youth justice system, who are overwhelmingly Indigenous, are going without legal representation and languishing in over-crowded prisons, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

In a letter from federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to her Northern Territory counterpart Marie-Claire Boothby, revealed in budget hearings on Monday, a series of resourcing concerns about the high incarceration rates of children were outlined.

Some children were going before courts with no legal representation, which was inconsistent with international obligations including the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, the letter dated May 20 said. 

Officials from the attorney-general’s department confirmed that was the case, highlighting increased concerns the Northern Territory government’s law amendments have ramped up child incarceration rates.

”How have we got to this point?” Greens NSW Senator David Shoebridge asked when tabling the letter in the committee. 

”Without any checks and balances from the federal government, the Northern Territory has now, through a series of legal and policy reforms, got to a point where its criminal justice system is breaching the Conventions on the Rights of the Child.”

The Northern Territory’s Country Liberal government introduced controversial ”tough on crime” laws in 2025, which impose a presumption against bail for both adults and children. 

Data from the territory, released in January, showed a 22 per cent surge in those refused bail over a twelve-month period.

Prison populations have swelled as a result. 

Federal officials from the Attorney-General’s Department confirmed that while the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency was still legally representing all children who presented to it, LegalAid had paused help for those who were not in custody. 

Attorney-General’s Department secretary, Katherine Jones, said her team had worked closely with the Northern Territory and sought to provide additional services there. 

”We will continue to engage,” she said. 

The Northern Territory’s government in 2024 lowered the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old about two years after the previous government took it up to 12.

Senator Shoebridge pressed the committee to respond to a United Nations report in May on the changes, but Ms Jones was blunt that her department was not responsible for doing so.

”Different levels of government have different responsibilities,” she said.

Senator Shoebridge said in the past year, Aboriginal children had often accounted for the entire Northern Territory youth prison population. 

Ms Jones said the Attorney-General’s Department did not have an on-the-ground role in Northern Territory Indigenous camps, when questioned by senators about the events leading up to the alleged abduction and death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs in April.

“We focus on the responsibilities the government has asked us to discharge, which is to fund projects that divert people from the justice system. That’s our responsibility,” she said.

The Northern Territory government is considering changes to its child protection laws.