A sodden town has been warned it is “not out of the woods yet” despite avoiding significant further damage from a fast-moving storm.

The Northern Territory on Monday farewelled former tropical cyclone Narelle as it barrelled toward Western Australia, triggering rain and wind warnings as it headed into the Kimberley.

Trees were toppled and power was cut across the Top End but the system caused less damage as it travelled west than was first feared.

“It moved a lot quicker than we were expecting, which is great news for the territory … there is much less damage than what we were expecting due to those fast speeds,” NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said.

However, Ms Finocchiaro warned Katherine, southeast of Darwin, was “not out of the woods yet” as the town braced for more flooding in Narelle’s wake.

Katherine homes and businesses are still reeling from floodwaters earlier in March after heavy rains filled catchments in the Big Rivers region.

Warnings remain in place for the nearby Katherine River, which was set to reach moderate flood levels later on Monday, potentially inundating roads and some buildings.

Major flood warnings are current for the Adelaide, Daly and Waterhouse rivers as Narelle – now classified as a tropical low – heads toward WA.

Katherine Mayor Joanna Holden said her community was better prepared this time around after a major sandbagging effort. 

There were no heavy downpours overnight and falls in the river catchment area had mostly been less than 100mm, she told AAP on Monday.

“So I think people are feeling mildly optimistic, but … we can’t become complacent.”

The power was off and a boil-water alert was issued in Adelaide River, where the major flood level was reached and residents self-evacuated overnight after four homes were inundated.

“There are a couple of big trees down and certainly water has been lapping the pub there and the service station,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

Hundreds of people airlifted to safety from the Gulf of Carpentaria community of Numbulwar will begin returning home from Monday afternoon after assessments showed the passing storm caused minimal damage.

But the Daly River township, northwest of Katherine, remains underwater with more flooding expected as hundreds of evacuated residents wait in emergency shelters in Batchelor, south of Darwin.

Flood watches were still in place and a coastal hazard warning had been issued for damaging surf for the NT’s western coast, including Darwin.

NT Police Commissioner Martin Dole said emergency services were monitoring river systems.

He warned drivers not to try to cross flooded roads including the Stuart Highway.

Narelle weakened to below cyclone strength after crossing the coast in remote eastern Arnhem Land on Sunday, with trees down but no reports of major damage in Gulf communities.

The ex-cyclone is forecast to continue its path into WA, bringing heavy rain and damaging wind gusts to northern parts of the Kimberley.

Catchments were already saturated across the region, meaning rivers and creeks would rise quickly with heavy rainfall, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Roads could be affected and some communities might become isolated, it warned.

The clean-up is continuing in far north Queensland after Narelle struck on Friday.

State schools have reopened and power is being restored across the remote region after the cyclone uprooted trees and blew off roofs, causing little structural damage.

Police have delivered fuel to Cape York communities to help locals recover from the storm.

“The community’s dodged a bullet, big time,” Lockhart River Mayor Wayne Butcher said.

Australia’s only manganese alloy smelter has been placed into voluntary administration, with the task of finding a buyer declared an immediate focus.

Liberty Bell Bay, in northern Tasmania, has been sitting idle since May when it paused operations due to ore supply issues and global price volatility.

The smelter is a subsidiary of GFG Alliance, owned by Sanjeev Gupta, who has got into trouble elsewhere in Australia, previously running the under-administration Whyalla steelworks. 

British multi-national EY announced on Monday it had been appointed as Liberty Bell Bay’s administrator.

They will work with unions and state and federal governments to explore avenues to support operations and will meet with its 216-strong workforce as soon as possible. 

The primary objective is to secure the restructure or sale of the company and its assets, the administrator said. 

“Our immediate focus is on stabilising Liberty Bell Bay operations and initiating a sales process to find a new owner for this critical piece of infrastructure,” EY’s Morgan Kelly said.

Additional funding is being sought by EY for operational costs, including payment of employee wages. 

The existing management team will remain in place.

The federal and state governments have said they will work closely with the administrators. 

“GFG has failed to deliver on its commitments to restart operations and provide certainty to Tasmanians,” Tasmanian Industry and Resources Minister Felix Ellis said. 

“(The) news will be difficult for workers, their families and the local community who have already endured prolonged uncertainty.” 

A GFG Alliance spokesman said the company would fully co-operate with administrators and assist their efforts to achieve the best possible outcome for all.

“Liberty Bell Bay had faced a challenging 20 months due to the force majeure declared by its main ore supplier, a significant deterioration in market conditions worldwide, and rising costs,” the spokesman said. 

“GFG Alliance had been pursuing a sustainable future for Australia’s only manganese smelter to protect 216 Tasmanian jobs and support local industry.”

In August, Tasmania’s government loaned Liberty Bell Bay $20 million to purchase ore with the goal of resuming operations.

When operations didn’t restart, the government in January appointed receivers and managers to protect the ore stockpile, accusing the company of breaching loan arrangements.

In May, the national corporate regulator lodged legal action to try to wind up Liberty Bell Bay over a failure to lodge tax returns.

GFG Alliance in November said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with a Georgian company to operate the smelter for up to five years.

An electrician who researched rockets for the Islamic State but later denounced its extremist ideology will be keenly watched by federal police when he returns to his quiet, rural town.

Haisem Zahab, who has been denied parole twice, will be released from prison when his nine-year sentence expires on Friday.

The 52-year-old was jailed in 2019 by the NSW Supreme Court for supporting a terrorist organisation after researching and developing a laser warning receiver, rockets and rocket guidance methods for IS.

During a hearing earlier in March, police asked the Federal Court to impose interim control orders allowing them to supervise the electrician when he returns to live with his family in the rural town of Young.

Justice Stephen Burley on Monday imposed the order, deeming it appropriate and all of the police-proposed conditions as necessary.

The judge’s full decision has been suppressed until Tuesday to give the parties time to suggest redactions.

The conditions include electronic monitoring, therapeutic programs and educational support.

At the earlier hearing, the Australian-born man’s barrister unsuccessfully argued that post-sentence supervision was not necessary.

Zahab had continually denounced his extremist beliefs since April 2019 after pleading guilty to assisting IS, lawyer Riyad El-Choufani said.

The electrician had moved from Sydney to Young and was not working full-time when he created his first Twitter account, he said. 

“Regrettably, what seems to have occurred here is that Mr Zahab fell into the Pandora’s box of social media, fell to the seductive qualities of Islamic State’s propaganda,” he said.

At the time, the Arab Spring had erupted and the electrician came to see IS  as a bulwark against the oppressive regime of then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the court was told.

He later told prison officers he thought the terror organisation was a “force for good” when conducting his research from late 2014. Zahab was arrested in March 2017.

The electrician had completed two jail programs aimed at those with extremist ideologies.

Meanwhile, his family had completed a course on radicalisation so they could notice warning signs.

Police acknowledged the 59-year-old had made some progress.

But, having been radicalised online in private, there remained a chance he could fall back into his old ways, barrister Trent Glover SC said, acting for federal police.

Mr Glover said Zahab had minimised his conduct while in prison, describing his research into rockets as a project within the realm of his interests and hobbies.

The agreed facts of his criminal case stated Zahab researched and used 3D technology to develop the mechanical design and fabrication of a laser warning receiver to provide advanced notice of incoming laser-guided weapons.

He created a 288-page report on the receiver and sent it via secure software to a UK national who later admitted IS membership.

In 2019, sentencing judge Justice Geoffrey Bellew rejected Zahab’s testimony that he’d been in a cult or bubble of IS supporters – including on Twitter where he assumed the alias “Stranger” – and had divorced himself from mainstream news.

The claim that IS was a “force for good” and could  therefore assist civilians fight the al-Assad regime was “fanciful in the extreme”.

A full hearing to confirm, vary or revoke the interim control order will take place on June 1.

Journalists at Australia’s national broadcaster will strike for the first time in years after knocking back a pay deal.

Sixty per cent of ABC staff who took part in a vote rejected the offer, paving the way for a range of industrial actions including a 24-hour strike.

The strike is set for 11am on Wednesday and is expected to impact live broadcasts on both television and radio.

While non-media staff walked off the job in 2023, journalists did not take part.

This time, the strike won 90 per cent support among voting media-union members.

The union said below‑inflation pay outcomes and ongoing insecure work threatened the future of public‑interest journalism.

ABC management’s last offer was confirmed as being rejected on Monday.

It featured limited job security, did not address concerns around staff being stuck on rolling short-term contracts and failed to guarantee jobs would not be cut and replaced by AI, the media union said.

“Experienced journalists and media workers are being asked to do more with less – with fewer opportunities for pay progression, less certainty about their future, and growing workloads,” Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance chief executive Erin Madeley said.

“This isn’t just a workforce issue. When skilled, experienced staff are forced out, communities lose trusted local voices, particularly in regional Australia where the ABC is often the only local newsroom.”

Strike action was also backed by a ballot of non-media ABC staff, represented by the Community and Public Sector Union.

Staff rejected the deal because it featured a pay rise below inflation, along with concerns about career progression, night-shift penalty rates and reproductive health leave, the union said.

“The last thing union members want to do is inconvenience loyal ABC audiences by disrupting programming and services, but key bargaining claims remain unresolved,” the union’s ABC section secretary, Jocelyn Gammie, said.

“Unless the ABC put a fair offer on the table, disruptions are inevitable.”

More than 4400 people work at the ABC, including 2000 in news, the largest division.

ABC is the 11th most used website in the nation ahead of Netflix, according to SimilarWeb.

ABC’s chief people officer Deena Amorelli emailed staff on Monday to inform them the deal had been declined.

“The ABC will now make an application to the Fair Work Commission to assist with resolving bargaining,” she said.

“Further information about next steps, including proposed strike action by MEAA and the CPSU, will be communicated over the next couple of days.”

Australia’s share market has fallen sharply, after Iran responded to a US ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with threats to attack its gulf neighbours’ water and energy infrastructure.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 tumbled 131.1 points by noon on Monday, down 1.56 per cent, to 8,297.3, as the broader All Ordinaries slumped 147.7 points, or 1.70 per cent, to 8,484.7.

The All Ordinaries, which comprises Australia’s 500 most valuable listed companies, has dropped 10 per cent from recent all-time highs, wiping $322 billion from the index since the war began on February 28.

US President Donald Trump has now issued an ultimatum to Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz – a choke point for a fifth of global oil supplies – within 48 hours, or face US attacks on its power plants.

If Mr Trump follows through, Iran has vowed to attack energy infrastructure and crucial desalination plants in gulf states housing US bases.

“President Trump’s threat has now placed a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty over markets,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said.

The escalating conflict has caused global oil prices to surge, fanning inflation concerns and weighing on the prospects of global growth, pummelling equities markets.

Australian miners have been hit hard, the sector tumbling four per cent by midday, taking its losses to more than 23 per cent since the war began.

Mega miners BHP and Rio Tinto each dipped more than two per cent, while mixed miner South32 tumbled 4.9 per cent to $3.79.

Gold producers were under selling pressure, with Evolution, Northern Star and Newmont all falling seven per cent or more, as the precious metal slipped to $US4,358 ($A6,227) an ounce.

Gold stocks made up the majority of the top-200’s 15 worst-performers.

Local energy stocks traded roughly flat, as Woodside and Santos edged roughly 0.5 per cent higher, but coal miners and uranium stocks fell behind.

The owners of Australia’s two remaining crude oil refineries, Ampol and Viva, gained 0.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively.

Industrials stocks traded 1.4 per cent lower, with Qantas down 1.3 per cent to $8.23 and Virgin Australia taking a 7.3 per cent hit, amid ongoing disruptions to global travel and after both airlines announced they would hike airfares to account for surging jet fuel costs.

The heavyweight financials sector faded as all big four banks traded lower, led by a two per cent slump in NAB shares to $44.66, while CBA lost 0.8 per cent to $174.26.

Major insurers bucked the broader trend, with QBE, Suncorp and IAG carving out gains.

In company news, ARN Media shares dived 4.6 per cent to 31.5 cents as shock jock Kyle Sandilands launched legal action against the group after it took The Kyle and Jackie O Show off air and terminated his $100 million contract.

Stokes family-controlled SGH has elevated its Boral subsidiary chief operating officer Matt McKenzie to the top job, to replace current CEO Vik Bansal on April 1.

The Australian dollar was buying 69.95 US cents, down from 70.86 on Friday at 5pm.

Cuba has restored ‌power to nearly half of the capital Havana, less than 24 hours after the national grid collapsed for the second time in a week, ‌amid a US oil blockade that has dealt a major blow to the island’s already ailing energy infrastructure.

The grid failed on Saturday evening after a major power ‌plant in Nuevitas, in eastern Cuba’s Camaguey province, went offline, The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) said, causing a cascade effect that knocked out power to the nation’s approximately 10 million people.

Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Havana – approximately 55 per cent of the total – as well as 43 hospitals, were back online by Sunday afternoon, UNE said.

The grid operator was also preparing to fire the country’s largest oil-fired power plant and expected it to be operating by day’s end, sharply boosting generation.

Life carried on as normal across most ‌of Havana despite the ongoing ‌blackouts, which have become ⁠a regular part of the daily routine in the capital even when the national grid is operational.

“We’re stuck ​in the same rut,” said Havana resident Leoni Alberto, who said he was forced to cook with firewood several times a week due to the outages.

“It’s absolute madness. There’s no other way around it.”

Outlying provinces also reported a gradual restoration of power, though a dramatic shortage of diesel fuel means only a portion of the grid’s capacity is available for generation, meaning many areas will continue to see lengthy blackouts despite restoration efforts, officials said.

Mobile phone service and internet remained spotty countrywide but had improved in many areas by ⁠afternoon.

Havana resident Yordanis Lopez, like many in the waterfront capital, was still waiting for ‌the lights to ​come back on at midday on Sunday. He said the outage had left him in the dark in more ways than one.

“When the power grid fails, social media ​networks go down ‌as well,” he said.

“You have no idea what is happening.”

Cuba’s electrical grid has been teetering on the edge of collapse and unreliable for ​months, with hours, and sometimes day-long blackouts the norm.

But Saturday’s grid failure marks the third major power outage this month, as a majority of the system went down on March 4 when a key thermoelectric generating plant stopped suddenly. The power grid also went completely offline on Monday for unexplained reasons.

Cuba ​has ​experienced a series of total outages in recent years, but two ​nationwide blackouts in the space of a week is exceptional.

US President Donald Trump began taking measures to block oil from reaching the Caribbean island after Washington deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Venezuela had previously provided oil to its close ally on favourable terms.

Since then, Trump has cut ​off Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened other countries with punitive tariffs if they sell oil to the island.

The prime minister has been phoning his global counterparts to try and shore up Australia’s fuel stocks over the coming weeks and months, as the Middle East war sends shockwaves through global supply chains.

The government will bring together business leaders for a food security summit on Monday, as logistics companies warn petrol and diesel price hikes are putting their operations under increasing pressure.

Australia is heavily reliant on fuel imports, bringing much of it in from South Korea and Singapore, which in turn rely on oil from the Middle East.

Anthony Albanese was working the phones to ensure Australia’s imports were not forgotten in the global rush for oil, Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said.

“The prime minister’s negotiating with our Asian neighbours and counterparts to try and maximise the amount of fuel that is available in Australia,” he told Sky News on Monday morning.

Mr Thistlethwaite suggested Australia could leverage its natural gas exports to incentivise countries such as South Korea to continue sending fuel.

The International Energy Agency has suggested encouraging people to work from home in a bid to reduce demand for petrol, a move the government described as “sensible” on Sunday.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen also revealed six tankers bound for Australia had their journeys cancelled or postponed because of the war in the Middle East.

Fuel companies had increased their imports from the United States in response, Labor minister Mark Butler said on Monday.

“We’re seeing, as I understand it, an increase in shipments from the US that we haven’t seen for many, many years,” he told Nine’s Today program.

“I think the companies, but also the government, (are) working very hard to make sure that we can get supplies from wherever possible,” he said

Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said stronger supply chains were the solution to the fuel crisis.

“The way to deal with the crisis we’re facing now is to address those distribution channels and to make sure that we have the supply chains in place to deliver fuel where it’s needed,” she told ABC TV.

“Without that, the economy simply runs to a stop.”

US singer Chappell Roan has responded to claims her security guard made the daughter of footballer Jorginho cry, saying the situation makes her feel “really sad” and she “did not deserve that”.

The Premier League footballer posted on Instagram on Saturday to criticise Roan after her security spoke “in an extremely aggressive manner” to his wife and daughter after they saw the popstar at a hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Jorginho, 34, said his 11-year-old daughter was “extremely shaken and cried a lot” after the interaction and also hit out at the singer for not appreciating her supporters.

“Without your fans, you would be nothing.”

Roan took to Instagram on Sunday and shared a video to her almost eight million followers as she addressed the incident.

“I’m just going to tell my half of the story of what happened today with a mother and child who were involved with a security guard who is not my personal security.

“I didn’t even see, I didn’t even see a woman and a child like … no-one came up to me, no one bothered me like I was just sitting at breakfast in my hotel. I think these people were staying at the hotel as well.

“So, the fact that, like a security guard, who was – I did not ask the security guard to go up and talk to this mother and child, I did not.

“They did not come up to me. They weren’t doing anything. It’s unfair for security to just assume someone doesn’t have good intentions when they have no reason to believe, because there’s no action even taken.”

Roan, 28, who was lying down in bed as she spoke in the video.

“I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children – that is crazy.

“I’m sorry to the mother and child that someone was assuming something, that you would do something, and that … if you felt uncomfortable, that makes me really sad. You did not deserve that.”

Jorginho is married to Irish singer Catherine Harding and the pair have one child together.

Harding has a daughter from a previous relationship with actor Jude Law and Jorginho has two children from a previous marriage to Natalia Leteri.

The Grammy-winning singer, whose real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, previously hit out at “entitled” fans for their “creepy” behaviour in a series of TikToks in 2024, where she emphasised the need for boundaries between celebrities and their fans.

Australia’s most populous state could slash gas use by more than 50 per cent by 2035 if economy-wide reductions in the expensive, emissions-intensive fuel are pursued.

Modelling commissioned by Lock the Gate found commercially available technologies could cut NSW gas use by three-quarters.

The anti-fossil fuel organisation has joined forces with environmental groups, unions, health professionals and community organisations to call for a comprehensive gas reduction strategy from the state government.

The alliance has recommended phasing out gas connections in new homes, fast-tracking cuts in low-heat manufacturing and statewide gas reduction targets to wean the state off the fuel more rapidly.

Gas use is expensive and has implications for NSW’s climate commitment to reach net zero by 2050.

NSW gas prices have climbed almost 277 per cent since 2011, the commissioned Springmount Advisory report finds, piling pressure on manufacturers and contributing to higher electricity prices.

Burning gas in the home can also be harmful to health, with gas stovetops linked to childhood asthma.

The coalition – including Doctors for the Environment Australia, the NSW and ACT Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Nature Conservation Council NSW – says the upcoming update to the state’s Net Zero Plan should include an economy-wide gas plan.

The alliance wants new gas connections phased out, starting with apartments, a step already taken by the Victorian and ACT governments and some NSW councils. 

While movement on household and small business electrification is expected in an upcoming Gas Decarbonisation Roadmap, industrial use has received less attention.

Manufacturing steel, glass, bricks and cement still face high costs to electrify but gas-free opportunities are available for lower-heat processing, including for food and paper. 

An electrification target for low-heat manufacturing and supporting policies has been recommended to prevent industry closures and preserve finite gas supplies for sectors that need more time to develop alternatives.

The report noted gas use was already in structural decline, falling 17 per cent since 2020, suggesting formal targets would accelerate the existing trend.

Australia is staring down a $90 billion-a-year obesity crisis by 2032 but spending below the OECD average on preventative health to tackle it.

Two-thirds of those costs will be felt in days off work, premature death and other productivity losses, a report commissioned by Novo Nordisk finds.

Obesity is already costing the nation roughly $39 billion a year, equivalent to two per cent of GDP.

Produced by progressive McKell Institute and conservative Menzies Research Centre on behalf of the company behind weight-loss wonder drug Ozempic, the report calls for “all of the above” policy response.

That includes phased subsidies for GLP-1 drugs, which include Ozempic and Wegovy, initially targeted at high-risk groups and disadvantaged populations in the interests of keeping pressure off the public purse.

The drugs are already subsidised on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to treat type 2 diabetes but the federal health minister has been considering expanding accessibility so more Australians can access them at reduced cost.

The report recommends providing nutrition, exercise and behavioural support to those eligible for government-subsidised pharmaceuticals.

Preventative health spending should be boosted from two per cent to at least three-to-four per cent of the total health budget, in line with OECD averages.

Australia’s move to mandatory health star ratings is also supported in the report.

Roughly 67 per cent of Australian adults are classified as overweight or obese, up from 56 per cent in 1995.

One-in-four children are overweight or obese and 80 per cent of those adolescents go on to be obese adults. 

Obesity also disproportionately affects lower-income groups and people living in regional and remote areas, entrenching existing health inequalities.