Australia news LIVE: Joe Hockey says corruption flourishing in Washington; High Court decision on Hunter coal mine expansion set to ripple across sector

Updated October 8, 2026 — 11:18am,first published October 8, 2026 — 6:56am

NSW Premier Chris Minns says activists shouldn’t get overexcited by a High Court decision that halted the expansion of a Hunter Valley coal mine, saying there are no plans to change the state’s laws to protect other extensions.

After the High Court ruled in favour of a Hunter Valley residents’ group, which halted the Mount Pleasant mine expansion last year, Minns described the judgment as a “very narrow, technical decision” that he didn’t believe would not impact approvals for expansions of other mines.

“What I’d say about the High Court’s decision from yesterday is that I don’t think everyone should overreact to the decision, and I also don’t think that activists who are considering court action should get overexcited,” he said.

Last week, the Independent Planning Commission ruled in favour of The Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) application to continue operating until 2045. Minns drew a distinction between Mt Pleasant’s initial 2022 application, which did not account for emissions burned from the coal sold overseas (known as scope three), and the HVO approval. Minns argued that the laws had been strengthened since then, which he said was evident in the IPC’s decision to consider scope three emissions in its approval of the HVO expansion.

“It did take into consideration the point of law that was contested in the High Court. I think the rules that are in place today are better, more informed, and more understanding of the of mining and the environmental impacts than they were previously,” he said.

The Australian Defence Force will suspend operations using the type of vehicle involved in a fatal rollover during a training exercise.

Corporal Brendan Hannam was killed during an exercise at the Mount Bundey training area in the Northern Territory on Monday evening.

The 28-year-old father of two was a passenger in a Supacat troop-carrying vehicle at the time of the incident. Five other army personnel were also injured.

The Supacat is an all-terrain vehicle used by special forces units and the army’s first brigade.

Heavily armed police officers could be deployed outside the cricket and other major events, after the NSW Police established a new tactical squad in response to the Bondi terror attack.

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the Armed Response Command (ARC) – a squad of specially trained officers equipped with long arm rifles – would cover metropolitan Sydney, reacting when required but also being proactively deployed.

When asked which events would see an active deployment of the ARC, Lanyon said, “Major events, certainly; where there are major public gatherings. If we need to provide reassurance to the community in that space, their role is to be mobile.”

“Their role is to be everywhere across the metropolitan area to respond to situations as required. But if the intelligence that says there is a risk to a particular event, we will make sure that they are deployed with other policing resources.”

Lanyon said he expected 60 officers will be trained and ready for deployment by November 1. Police are considering an alternative model for regional NSW.

The Iran-backed Houthis struck two airports in Saudi Arabia, killing three residents and injuring dozens as the militant group intensified its attacks on the kingdom while fighting Saudi-backed forces in Yemen.

King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh and Abha airport in the southwestern region came under fire on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the two strikes causing some material damage, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said.

The Houthis claimed to have attacked both airports.

A Sudanese man was killed in the assault on the Riyadh airport, according to GACA. Five Saudi nationals, two Egyptians and a Pakistani resident were injured.

The French government is pausing the use of stun grenades in its policing of student protests, after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was blown off during a clash with riot police, fuelling protesters’ accusations of police brutality.

Protests showed no sign of easing, with more than 500 schools closed a day after demonstrations swept across the country, and unions representing high school students, teachers and other workers planning more marches.

The wave of protests has been going on for more than two weeks and has exposed widespread public anger six months ahead of an election to replace President Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking to the nation on Wednesday evening (Paris time), Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the government would review the demands made by students and present proposals at the end of October on issues ranging from renovating buildings to make more teachers available, but gave no details.

US President Donald Trump is seeking approval from local officials in Florida to designate his West Palm Beach golf course into a permanently-designated presidential retreat that would host summits, world leaders and current and former occupants of the White House.

“Just like Camp David, Windsor Castle or the Elysee Palace are known worldwide, so too will the Presidential Golf Course in Palm Beach County,” according to a September letter from a lawyer representing Trump, Harvey Oyer, to the Palm Beach County commission.

Trump said Wednesday that the military and Secret Service asked him to make the golf course into a retreat. A White House official familiar with the plans confirmed the request to turn the facility into a space for high-level meetings and presidential golf sessions.

“They could spend the weekend there, like a retreat, like sort of a Camp David retreat, and they asked if I’d be willing to do it, and I said I would be,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House.

He also highlighted the course’s security features and proximity to the airport.

Bloomberg

Norway’s Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra will return to Australia to resume her degree next year, Norway’s Royal House has announced.

The 22-year-old royal, who became the throne’s heir apparent in August following King Harald V’s death, will return to the University of Sydney in February for the start of the new semester. She abruptly left Sydney in June amid her family’s annus horribilis, which forced her to return to Norway.

Ingrid Alexandra spent the autumn semester as an exchange student in her home town of Oslo as her mother, Queen Mette-Marit, recovered from a lung transplant, and her grandfather Harald V’s health declined.

During that time period, Mette-Marit, who has battled pulmonary fibrosis since 2018, faced heightened scrutiny over her ties to disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Porsche plans to increase prices of its top-end sportscars by an average of 20 per cent, including the introduction of a new model that will sit above the longtime flagship 911 in the line-up, as it seeks to revive flagging profits.

The German manufacturer outlined a fresh strategy at an investor presentation that focuses on selling fewer, higher-end cars with special features to drive returns.

The push for more exclusivity follows costly missteps on electrification and a plunge in sales in China that last month contributed to parent Volkswagen slashing its outlook.

Porsche, which delivered just under 280,000 vehicles last year, is also closing and selling non-core businesses, such as its stake in a venture that owns super-car maker Bugatti. Across the company, agreements reached with employee representatives earlier this year are set to reduce the workforce by 9,000 positions, or around 25 per cent of its workforce, by 2035.

TikTok ran an experiment on thousands of users who tried to turn on a safety feature on the platform, giving them non-functional versions of the tool, according to allegations in New York’s lawsuit against the company unsealed on Wednesday (US time).

In the so-called “ghost” or placebo experiments, TikTok selected thousands of users, including teens and children, who opted to use safety features like “Algo Refresh,” a tool designed to reset recommendations for users seeking to escape unwanted or potentially harmful content.

According to the lawsuit, those users believed they had activated the feature, but their feeds did not change, unlike users who got the fully working version.

The newly unsealed allegations are part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the company, one of more than two dozen brought by states accusing TikTok of designing its platform to addict children and of misleading users about its safety. Many documents in state cases across the country have been sealed or heavily redacted as TikTok has sought to keep details about its operations from public view.

Reuters

Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres has said the government was “pleased” that OpenAI had been “very co-operative” after the company apologised to Australians for its agents accessing government websites during the parliament’s Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence this week.

Ayres said the government was investing in Australia’s AI capability and cybersecurity to ensure the country was prepared for future attacks.

“Cybersecurity is not a new phenomenon,” he told News Breakfast. “What’s different about this is these are AI agents ... that have not been following their instructions.”

“There was a very sharp and direct discussion with OpenAI,” he said. “Fronting up to the inquiry is a good thing. Being open and transparent is the right approach. But we’ve got a lot more work to do.”

He said the government was focused on delivering AI training that was “fundamentally about Australian sovereignty and AI sovereignty, and making sure that we are shaping the technology, not just having the technology shape us”.

The hearings continue today and tomorrow in Melbourne, where witnesses include Amazon, Telstra, Westpac, NAB and ANZ.