An Australian volunteer on board a boat carrying aid to Gaza says he feared for his life after a drone strike on the vessel.

Gold Coast-based Yusuf Omar, the founder of an online media company and a former CNN journalist, described the survival of the six passengers and crew on the Portuguese-flagged ship on Tuesday as miraculous.

“I felt the heat of a massive ball of flames. I was sleeping on the top deck as it hit,” he told AAP from Tunis hours after the explosion.

“I was shocked and terrified for my life.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla said the main and storage decks were damaged by fire from the strike, which Tunisian authorities deny took place.

The flotilla is part of an international effort to deliver air to Gaza through civilian boats with several high-profile celebrities joining the initiative including environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Mr Omar documented the charred aftermath of the strike showing burnt life jackets and sooty walls broadcasting it to his tens of thousands of social media followers.

AAP has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs for a comment.

The mother of an Australian who was also on the Gaza-bound aid boat said she was proud of her daughter but fears for her safety.

Julie Webb-Pullman woke up to the news, she was extremely upset and worried for her daughter Bianca Webb-Pullman, a GP in Melbourne.

“The terror of being asleep on a boat at sea and having it explode around you, and a fire breakout, is a psychologically extremely traumatising event,” she told AAP.

“I’m very worried for all the people on board, but especially my daughter.”

She has received a few texts from her daughter and is relieved she is no longer on the boat but said she supported the decision to join the flotilla.

“I’m very proud of her being out there doing what the Australian government should be doing, which is preventing genocide and intervening in a gross humanitarian crisis,” she said.

An investigation into the drone attack is under way, the flotilla said.

Tunisia’s National Guard spokesman has said reports of a drone attack on the flotilla “have no basis in truth” and claimed an initial inspection indicated the explosion initiated inside the vessel.

But a video uploaded to the flotilla’s social media appears to show the moment its boat was struck from above.

Israel has killed almost 64,000 people in Gaza including more than 20,000 children in its two-year long military assault, according to local health authorities

Its latest campaign began after militant group Hamas reportedly killed 1200 people and took another 250 hostages on October 7, 2023.

Protesters have set fire to homes of some of Nepal’s top political leaders in opposition to a social media ban that was lifted a day after deadly anti-government protests.

Local reports and videos shared on social media on Tuesday showed protesters attacking residences of the top political leaders in and around Kathmandu. 

A curfew was imposed in the capital and other cities, and schools in Kathmandu were closed.

The houses set on fire included those of Sher Bahadur Deuba, leader of the largest party Nepali Congress, President Ram Chandra Poudel, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak and leader of the Communist party of Nepal Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal. 

A private school owned by Deuba’s wife Arzu Deuba Rana, who is the current foreign minister, was also set on fire. 

The mass protest and attack on parliament on Monday began as opposition to the ban on social media platforms but were fuelled by growing frustration and dissatisfaction against the political parties among the people who blame them for corruption.

Several protests were reported on Tuesday despite the indefinite curfew in the capital.

“Punish the murders in government. Stop killing children,” the protesters chanted while police used loudspeakers urging them to return home.

The protesters’ anger was turning towards the government led by Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who has increasingly becoming unpopular.

Several widely used social networks, including Facebook, X and YouTube were blocked in the Himalayan nation last week after failing to comply with a new requirement to register and submit to government oversight.

Monday’s rallies against the ban swelled to tens of thousands of people in Kathmandu and crowds surrounded the parliament building before police opened fire on the demonstrators. Nineteen people were killed.

“Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” the crowds chanted, waving national flags. 

Monday’s rally was called the protest of Gen Z, which generally refers to people born between 1995 and 2010.

Seven of those killed and scores of the wounded were received at the National Trauma Centre, the country’s main hospital.

“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” Dr Badri Risa said. 

Families waited for news of their relatives while people lined up to donate blood.

Oli said in a statement he was forming an investigating committee to submit a report in 15 days and that compensation would be given for the lives lost and free treatment for the wounded.

Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak also resigned at an emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday.

The violence unfolded as Nepal’s government pursues a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable”. 

The proposal has been widely criticised as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.

The bill includes asking the companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the country. 

Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.

The registration requirement applied to about two dozen social networks widely used in Nepal. 

Google, which owns YouTube; Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp; and Elon Musk’s X platform did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. 

TikTok, Viber and three other platforms have registered and operated without interruption.

Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting “social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials”. 

The ban was lifted in 2024 after TikTok’s executives pledged to comply with local laws, including a ban of pornographic sites that was passed in 2018.

Australia’s ties with Vanuatu will go to “the next level”, despite the two countries failing to sign off on a long-awaited security and economic agreement, the prime minister says.

Anthony Albanese held talks with his Vanuatu counterpart Jotham Napat in Port Vila on Tuesday, before a visit to the Solomon Islands for the Pacific Islands Forum.

There was expectation the Vanuatu visit would feature both leaders signing off on the $500 million Nakamal security pact, following months of negotiations.

But Mr Napat indicated more time was needed by the Vanuatu government to consider the agreement, with concern it could restrict the Pacific nation’s ability to get funding from other countries for critical infrastructure.

The Nakamal agreement is believed to carry a significant security element, though the full details have not been released.

That might focus on decreasing China’s policing presence in Vanuatu, similar to Australia’s pact with the Solomon Islands to reduce Chinese officers in exchange for budget aid and expanding the local police force.

Mr Albanese said he believed a deal would soon be agreed.

“I respect the processes that Prime Minister Napat needs to go through. Both sides will go through our processes, but we’re very confident that the agreement can be reached,” he told reporters in Vanuatu on Tuesday.

“Our bilateral partnership is going to go to the next level.”

Fears over China’s ambitions to gain a security foothold in the Pacific, including the risk of establishing a military presence, have been heightened since Beijing stunned the region in 2022 by striking a security agreement with the Solomon Islands.

Vanuatu’s prime minister said further deliberation was needed before a deal could be reached.

“Some of my ministers and my MPs feel it requires more discussion, particularly on some of the specific wordings in the agreement,” Mr Napat said.

Mr Albanese said Australia would want economic development in Vanuatu and an upskilling of the country’s workforce as part of the agreement.

“We want to make sure that the Pacific look after each other, consistent with what we did at last year’s Pacific Island Forum meeting,” he said.

“We respect (Vanuatu’s) sovereignty, which is why we respect the discussion that we’ve had together today. If that means people going through processes for a short period of time, then that is absolutely fine by us.”

The visit to Vanuatu was the first by Mr Albanese as prime minister and only the second by a sitting leader.

Before talks with Mr Napat, Mr Albanese visited State House, where he made a courtesy call to Vanuatu President Nikenike Vurobaravu.

A tight-knit community is starting to fracture under the pressure of a drawn-out hunt for an accused murderer, with no end in sight or clue when visitors will return to the popular tourist region.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart died while serving a warrant to Dezi Freeman at Porepunkah, about 300km northeast of Melbourne, on August 26.

Freeman was last seen fleeing into bushland and hundreds of police have been scouring the area to find him.

The Alpine area would usually be preparing for an influx of visitors over the upcoming school holidays, but visitors had stayed away during the search, Bright and District Chamber of Commerce president Marcus Warner said.

“The community is starting to now get a little bit fractured in some of their opinions and their views,” Mr Warner told AAP.

“(Wondering) should we now try to get on with life and ignore the police advice?

“Others are saying no, we need to follow the police advice as there’s still a gunman on the loose.”

Official advice states that travel in Porepunkah should be restricted to essential movements and a VicEmergency alert warns people to be vigilant across the wider northeast area and detour the search zone.

Mr Warner believes the advice has deterred visitors, with his business Pepo Farms forced to close early two weekends in a row.

“The situation for businesses and community members in the Bright and Porepunkah area have significantly worsened emotionally, psychologically and definitely financially,” he said.

The chamber appealed to the state government for emergency funding to cover unexpected financial losses but said it was yet to receive a response.

Porepunkah locals have said there’s a growing sense of fear and anger in the area, with many residents locking their cars and homes for the first time.

Freeman, 56, is linked to the so-called “sovereign citizen” movement, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as a “threat” to the nation, along with the actions of far-right agitators.

“The social cohesion issue is something that causes me a great deal of distress,” he said on Tuesday.

“The fact that some people think that the government isn’t legitimate, the so-called sovereign citizens engage, therefore, in lawlessness because they don’t accept the law.”

The prime minister was among thousands of mourners who paid tribute to the officers at their funerals.

Det Sen Const Thompson was weeks from retiring and his partner Lisa Thompson told his funeral on Monday how he taught her to love without fear and be brave when scared.

“Honey, I’m so grateful you did, because I am scared,” the Benalla-based sergeant said.

“I don’t want to live my life without you and I don’t want to finish our dreams on my own. But I will, I promise.”

Tuesday marks two weeks since the fatal confrontation which also wounded a third officer.

Police believe Freeman might be receiving help from people within his network, offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

Senior Indian community leaders are joining calls for an embattled Liberal senator to apologise for inflammatory comments, inviting her to meet with the diaspora.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is being urged to say sorry for comments insinuating Labor was bringing in more Indian migrants to bolster its vote as the furore continues to divide her party.

She walked back the comments, saying there was no discriminatory immigration policy but insisted she had nothing to apologise for.

It’s stirred anger within the Indian diaspora which was already facing heightened racism following nationwide anti-immigration protests that singled out the community.

“The whole Indian community has a fear in mind at the moment because of the protest,” United Indian Associations president John Kennedy told AAP.

“When they make a comment and it is wrong, they should apologise, that’s very important.”

He said he would welcome Senator Nampijinpa Price and encouraged her to meet with the community.

“I think the government has to do something, because they have to bring confidence in people to say that they are safe to live here,” he said.

An apology would be welcomed, but the root cause of racism needed to be addressed through education, Australian Hindu Multicultural Association president Sajana Nand said.

“I feel very strongly, there shouldn’t be any room for racism,” he told AAP.

“We need to find the source of where this mentality is developing and we should nip it in the bud.

“It’s brewing up now and I don’t know where it’s going to end up. It’s ruining the cordial environment we have been enjoying, we’re fortunate to be living in Australia.”

India Club president Shubha Kumar called for the senator’s resignation or expulsion from the Liberal Party, saying the comments were “so ignorant about the Indian community”.

“A public apology definitely must be taken,” she told AAP.

“I’m so shocked, we came 50 years ago and we have never experienced these things we’re seeing now.”

Indians were “very energetic, peace loving migrants” who focus on community and family values, she stressed.

“And they integrate so very well in the community and …  are very hard working.”

Ms Kumar said the community was intelligent and insinuations Indian migrants were told how to vote was “very naive”.

Senator Nampijinpa Price again doubled down on the rhetoric during a Sky News interview, saying the comments were about mass migration and Labor “aggressively court the migrant community as they do the Indigenous community”.

Ms Kumar demanded a full retraction as opposed to Senator Price’s clarifications.

“The way she is going now, she is trying to justify her comments, which is really not acceptable at all,” she said.

Ms Kumar said she would welcome the senator meeting with the community but only if she was going to offer a sincere apology.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has been holding her own roundtables with Indian diaspora and NSW colleagues, including Opposition Leader Mark Speakman in Sydney.

Senator Nampijinpa Price didn’t attend the roundtables or community events and Ms Ley has refused to issue a public apology on her behalf, instead saying the comments were wrong and had been corrected.

The opposition leader said the community expressed the hurt and harm they felt at the comments but they also understood they were valued by the Liberal Party.

“I know that the senator is listening to the Indian community and hearing their words directly in many instances and I think that is important,” she told reporters in Glenellen.

Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser went further, issuing an apology at a community event in his Sydney electorate on Monday night.

“It pains me to say it, but I feel like I have to say it. My colleague Jacinta Price said something this week that I want to apologise unreservedly for,” Mr Leeser said in the video.

“Let me say very clearly, the contribution of Indian Australians to this country is fantastic. The Indian community is fantastic.”

Nepal’s government has lifted a ban on social media platforms a day after violent street protests that left at least 19 people dead.

Platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube were blocked last week, followed by a massive protest rally in the capital Kathmandu on Monday.

The government has now rolled back the social media ban, cabinet spokesperson and Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung said.

The decision came after 19 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the “Gen Z” protests as police in Kathmandu opened fire on demonstrators.

“We have withdrawn the shutdown of the social media. They are working now,” Gurung told Reuters.

All the apps were available in Nepal on Tuesday morning. Authorities have also imposed an indefinite curfew within the Kathmandu city area, Kathmandu district administrator Chhabilal Rijal said.

“No protests, mass gatherings, meetings, or assemblies of people will be allowed during the curfew,” he said in a notice.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said he was saddened by the incidents of violence due to the “infiltration from different selfish centres”.

The government would pay relief for the families of the dead and provide free treatment for the injured persons, he added.

“An investigation panel will be set up to find out the causes, assess losses and suggest measures within 15 days to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future,” Oli said in a late-night statement on Monday.

The Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned late Monday at an emergency cabinet meeting called by the prime minister.

Rallies swept the streets around the parliament building, which was surrounded by tens of thousands of people angry at authorities who said the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.

The government is pursuing a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable”.

The proposal has been widely criticised as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.

About two dozen social networks that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to register their companies officially in the Himalayan nation, the government said. Those that failed to register have been blocked since last week.

Neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, responded to requests for comment. Elon Musk’s X platform, formerly Twitter, did not respond either.

The video-sharing app TikTok, Viber and three other platforms have registered and operated without interruption.

Seven of those killed and scores of the wounded were taken to the National Trauma Centre, the country’s main hospital in the heart of Kathmandu.

“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” said Dr Badri Risa. Families waited anxiously outside for news of their relatives while people lined up to donate blood.

“Stop the ban on social media. Stop corruption, not social media,” crowds outside parliament chanted, waving the red and blue national flags.

The government’s proposed bill includes asking the tech companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the nation.

Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.

Nepal in 2023 banned TikTok for disrupting “social harmony, goodwill and diffusing indecent materials”.

The ban was lifted in 2024 after TikTok’s executives pledged to comply with local laws, including a ban of pornographic sites that was passed in 2018.

With Reuters

Thousands of jobs will be slashed in a major bank restructure, sparking criticism of the “unhinged” decision.

ANZ announced on Tuesday that 3500 staff and 1000 contractors would be laid off by September 2026 as part of the $560 million plan.

The bank said it was part of a push to simplify operations and focus on the “priorities of customers” alongside a sweeping move to cut consultant spending.

However, experts took aim at the bank’s reasons for the mass lay-offs.

The job losses may be an ANZ risk-management exercise, Swinburne University law and corporate governance expert Helen Bird said.

“Now it’s not clear they’re doing that, but it always raises a disquiet,” she told AAP.

“Those are my principal concerns. But the reason why they arise in the first place is because of the opaque way in which the bank has expressed its reasons.”

Cutting costs signalled an attempt to lift profits where high-level executives were usually the benefactors, she argued.

“They get what we call an executive bonus for lifting the price of the stock,” Ms Bird said.

“Everything that’s done has a range of agendas. That’s possibly not the only one, but it doesn’t hurt.” 

The Finance Sector Union savaged the job cuts, describing them as a betrayal.

“ANZ is one of the most profitable banks in the world, yet it is betraying 3500 workers simply to chase even bigger profits,” union national president Wendy Streets said in a statement.

“This is out of control. It’s not strategy, it’s unhinged.”

News of the cuts at ANZ was accidentally leaked in the past fortnight after some staff were informed via email to return laptops prior to being told of their removal.

ANZ said it was looking at a $560 million restructuring charge, with the final number set to be recorded in its full-year earnings update in November.

A strategy update will be provided to investors on October 13.

ANZ said the restructure would reduce duplication and have limited impact on frontline-facing customer service roles.

The bank also vowed to meet its commitments to the federal and Queensland governments following its Suncorp Bank acquisition, with roles at the state lender set to be preserved.

“We know this will be difficult news for some of our staff,” ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos said in a statement.

“While some of these changes have already commenced, we are committed to working through the impacts as quickly and safely as we can, for both care and respect for our teams affected.”

Outgoing staff will be provided support, including career advice.

“While recognising our teams will change the way we structure the bank and deliver our priorities, what won’t change is the dedication of our customer-facing bankers,” Mr Matos said.

In May, ANZ posted a half-year cash profit of $3.6 billion on the back of a five per cent jump in revenue to almost $11 billion.

ANZ shares were trading down half a percentage point at $32.775 early on Tuesday afternoon.

The bank has a market capitalisation of $98.3 billion.

Anthony Albanese has arrived in Vanuatu for crucial talks on a long-awaited security and economic agreement with the Pacific nation.

A guard of honour greeted the prime minister on Tuesday as he arrived in Port Vila to discuss the pact with his counterpart Jotham Napat.

While there were expectations the $500 million Nakamal security pact would be signed after months of negotiation, Mr Albanese said locking it in will take a bit longer.

“I wouldn’t expect that it will be signed today, but what we will do is to progress it today, to have that conversation,” he told ABC Radio before leaving Australia.

“We have committed to working towards upgrading our relationship. 

“There’s still some work to do, but we’re making good progress.”

Mr Albanese’s first stop will be State House, where he will make a courtesy call to Vanuatu President Nikenike Vurobaravu.

He will then hold a bilateral meeting with his counterpart.

It will be the first time the pair have met in person since Mr Napat came to office in February.

The deal is believed to carry a significant security element, though details haven’t been released.

That might focus on decreasing China’s policing presence in Vanuatu, similar to Australia’s pact with the Solomon Islands to reduce Chinese officers in exchange for budget aid and expanding the local police force.

Despite the delay in signing off on the agreement, Mr Albanese said he was confident of a breakthrough in talks.

“We want to enter into good faith discussions, and one way that you do that, of course, isn’t just by talking on the phone, it’s by having a face-to-face discussion,” he said.

“What we’re looking for is to build on the relationship, to be able to both benefit from shared prosperity.”

It is Mr Albanese’s first visit to Vanuatu as prime minister.

A previous security agreement struck with Vanuatu in 2022 was never approved by the country’s parliament, amid concerns over a lack of consultation and whether it was consistent with Vanuatu’s philosophy of non-alignment in foreign policy.

Fears over China’s ambitions to gain a security foothold in the Pacific, including the risk of establishing a military presence, have been heightened since Beijing stunned the region in 2022 by striking a security agreement with the Solomon Islands.

Vanuatu had pushed for visa-free travel to Australia as part of negotiations for the Nakamal agreement, but Mr Napat said this would be covered in a follow-up pact when an initial deal was decided in August.

The visit by the prime minister to Vanuatu comes ahead of Mr Albanese travelling to the Solomon Islands for talks with other leaders in the region at the Pacific Islands Forum.

Australian banks strongly support banning debit and credit card surcharges but want the Reserve Bank to rethink its proposed cap on the fees merchants pay card issuers.

The RBA in July proposed banning the surcharges that some merchants charge customers for accepting credit and debit cards, while offsetting that cost for businesses by reducing the fees they have to pay to customers’ card issuers.

The Australian Banking Association said in a 70-page submission to the RBA on Tuesday that Australia’s surcharging framework was “clearly broken” and needed reform.

“While surcharging may have been merited in the past, it has become increasingly burdensome, opaque and arbitrary for Australian consumers, and detached from its original objective of driving greater market efficiency,” the association said.

ABA CEO Simon Birmingham said consumers should have certainty at the checkout and a ban on surcharges was long overdue.

But the RBA’s proposal to limit Australia’s already low fees that merchants pay card issuers would “amount to the most far-reaching transformation of payment economics in two decades, without an evidentiary basis that they will achieve the promised outcome”, the ABA said.

The RBA’s proposal to reduce the cap on these “interchange fees” from 0.8 per cent of transaction value for domestic credit cards to 0.3 per cent would backfire on households while hurting businesses, the ABA said.

It would benefit multinational payment technology and payment companies, the banking association said. In the case of Apple Pay, new interchange cap would siphon a substantial portion of the fee earned on wallet transactions offshore.

The reduced interchange free cap would also likely lead to card issuers reducing the benefits they offer consumers, such as the interest-free periods that many of Australia’s 17 million cardholders use to manage their bills between pay cycles, the association said.

There are more targeted ways of addressing the RBA’s fairness concerns about the impact of interchange fees on small businesses, the association said.

While the ABA supported the ban on surcharges, it questioned whether the move would result in savings for households because merchants would simply raise prices.

The RBA’s approach “treats a bookkeeping change in how costs are recovered as if it were a real income gain for consumers, which is not the case”, the ABA said.

Renters will face fewer hurdles to flee abusive relationships under tenancy changes to help people in dangerous living situations.

NSW is expanding its existing provisions for leases to be terminated due to domestic violence, ensuring more “approved people” can declare a tenant is experiencing violence.

Tenants will be able to use a court order or tribunal ruling to protect themselves when an abuser is excluded from a rental property by bail conditions, such as by changing the locks without landlord approval.

The changes would also allow people to leave a shared lease due to domestic violence without informing co-tenants.

Landlords and realtors will also need permission to use images showing a tenant’s personal belongings in advertising, to prevent the potential for perpetrators to track them down.

Renters who have been listed on residential tenancy databases will be able to go to Fair Trading to get off them by providing evidence of abuse.

The tribunal will be able to rule on whether damage to properties stemmed from incidents of abuse to prevent perpetrators dodging liability, and to break up bonds to better help survivors recover their share.

The changes should reduce risk and stress for people fleeing violence and provide clarity for landlords and agents, NSW Rental Commissioner Trina Jones said.

“This is about safety, dignity and fairness,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

“No one should be trapped in an unsafe relationship because of unfair rental laws.”

Accessing safe and affordable housing is a critical issue for people seeking to leave an abusive relationship, Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said.

“Many victim-survivors are unable to leave abusive relationships because they have nowhere else to live,” he said.

The announcements follow recommendations from a recent statutory review of domestic violence provisions added to tenancy legislation in 2019.

Consultation on the review began under the previous coalition government in 2022 and included surveys, polls and written submissions.

Targeted consultation continued with 40 government and non-government organisations in 2024 and 2025 before the review being finalised in July.

Premier Chris Minns said the changes were “common sense”, coming after consultation with abuse survivors and frontline services and aimed at making the law work better in real-life situations.

Domestic Violence Prevention Minister Jodie Harrison said the changes should support people leaving abusive relationships and reduce the risk of further financial harm.

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