Australia news LIVE: Number of Australians missing in Nepal, Tibet revised to 38; US launches major strikes against Iran

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has revised the number of Australians missing in Nepal and Tibet down to 38, from 43 yesterday morning, as it says five additional Australians have been accounted for, including the one reported yesterday afternoon.

Of the five citizens confirmed safe, one was in Nepal, one in Tibet, and three were outside of the disaster zone.

Because the Australians had not been in contact with families or next of kin since the floods struck last week, their welfare could not be confirmed initially.

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Young boys would be less susceptible to “manosphere” content if they had more male teachers, Nationals leader Matt Canavan has said.

“I can understand the fury, and it’s totally understandable,” he told Nine’s Today show earlier. “I’m a father of four boys … I think we’ve got to have a deep-hearted look at why young boys are attracted to this stuff online. It is terrible. It is toxic.”

He said teenage boys were “sick and tired of getting lectures about how bad men are at school,” and were forced to seek guidance in other places such as social media.

But this could be fixed, Canavan claimed, by employing more male teachers in schools around the country.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has expressed his concerns for the Australians still missing after catastrophic floods hit Nepal and Tibet last week and says Australia has an obligation to help Nepal recover from the disaster.

DFAT confirmed today that the number of Australians unaccounted for has been revised down to 38.

“We hope and pray as many Australians are found and saved,” Joyce told News24 earlier this morning.

“We do have an obligation to try and help the Nepalese, they’re great people.”

The Australian government has committed a total of $8 million to recovery efforts in Nepal. The amount has drawn criticism from some members of the Greens who say it does not come close to meeting the need of communities entirely destroyed by the floods.

About a dozen Australian citizens, including a Perth-born paediatrician nicknamed “Dr Jihad” who became a notorious Islamic State fighter, may be among a group of thousands set to face trial in Iraq for their involvement with the terrorist organisation.

Tareq Kamleh, who was presumed to have been killed in Syria almost a decade ago, is among the cohort linked to the terrorist group who were hoping to return to Australia in July.

First reported by the ABC, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council released a statement this week revealing interrogations of over 5700 individuals linked to Islamic State groups. Referrals to trial are expected imminently.

Kamleh is wanted by the AFP under an active warrant for terrorism offences, including joining and recruiting for a banned terrorist organisation.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s office was contacted for comment. The government has said they would not provide any assistance to the individuals, including the facilitation of their return to Australia.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson says the news the number of Australians missing in Nepal and Tibet has been revised down to 38 is “very welcome”, but that the opposition expected the government to continue working with its Nepalese counterparts to support Australians impacted by the disaster.

“We expect our government to work with Nepalese government to support Australians who are overseas, but our thoughts are really with those people who are still missing, and it’s a significant number of people, and it’s a deeply concerning situation,” he told News24.

Wilson said it was a pertinent reminder that Australians travelling to foreign countries should always take whatever precautions possible to keep themselves and others safe.

“But also [it] should be, frankly, a reminder that when you go overseas, it is risky, and there are consequences associated with that. It shouldn’t deter people, but people need to take proper measures.”

Opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg has claimed “no one wants to buy anything in Australia at the moment”, amid a downturn in property prices after changes made to property taxes in the government’s May budget.

“I think anyone who wants to dress up these terrible tax grabs as having helped anyone, I think, needs a new brain,” Bragg told ABC Radio National.

“I mean, the thing about these new taxes is they actually don’t help anyone.”

A new report by the Commonwealth Bank found that about 93 per cent of Australian suburbs recorded price falls in August, marking the fifth consecutive month that prices of homes in almost all capital cities have decreased.

The CBA estimated a price recovery would not occur until next year.

Minister for International Development and Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly says the government assumes the additional Australians confirmed safe amid the disaster in Nepal and Tibet had not been able to make contact with their families since last week, but confirmed the number of missing Aussies had been revised down to 38.

“They hadn’t been able to make contact since the crisis began,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast. “We still hold grave concerns for the 38 Australians still missing.”

She said communicating with those in the disaster zone remained incredibly difficult.

“There are real logistic issues, including communications to find out where people are. But for those families that are still waiting, those 38 individuals that are unaccounted for, we understand that it’s a really concerning time, and we’ll continue to do whatever we can to try and locate those people.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has revised the number of Australians missing in Nepal and Tibet down to 38, from 43 yesterday morning, as it says five additional Australians have been accounted for, including the one reported yesterday afternoon.

Of the five citizens confirmed safe, one was in Nepal, one in Tibet, and three were outside of the disaster zone.

Because the Australians had not been in contact with families or next of kin since the floods struck last week, their welfare could not be confirmed initially.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil says a temporary downturn in house prices should not alarm Australians after a report by CBA said a price recovery would not occur until 2027.

“It’s clear that house prices are softening around the country, and I really recognise that, you know, for many Australians, their house is their most important asset,” O’Neil told Seven’s Sunrise.

“What that report also shows us is that house prices will start to grow again, and CBA says that will happen at some stage next year. The housing market in Australia is inherently cyclical. We see periods of really strong house price growths that are followed by a period of housing downturn. That’s happened now about four times in the last decade.”

O’Neil said downturns in property prices were always expected, and were an inevitable outcome of the government’s attempt to stabilise intergenerational inequality in the housing market after it made major changes to property taxes in its May budget.

“We’ve seen house prices in our country grow by 300 per cent since the year 2000. If that happens for another generation in our country, our nation is going to be unrecognisable to us in terms of equality and aspiration.”

Washington: The United States military announced its first major strikes against Iran in more than a month, in what it said was an operation targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) following recent aggression.

The strikes began at 7.30pm Tehran time on Tuesday (2am Wednesday AEST), US Central Command said. “The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.”

Iranian state-run media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, and other locations. Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting alleged the US attacked a fishmeal factory in Qeshm “and several non-military targets” in Hormozgan province.

Semi-official Iranian media outlets also reported the regime was launching missiles and drones at US assets in retaliation. Press TV published a statement attributed to the country’s military command vowing to inflict “crushing and devastating blows upon the vile and evil American enemy”.

The last time the US military confirmed strikes against Iran was on July 29.

Read the full story here.

Teach Us Consent chief executive Chanel Contos will use an address to the National Press Club later today to call on the government to implement an “opt-in” model for social media algorithms, a move she says will prevent platforms from serving damaging “manosphere” content to young men.

She will argue social media algorithms are exposing young, impressionable users to harmful content and fuelling a rise in sexual violence in Australia.

The advocate launched the “Fix Our Feeds” campaign in December, to address what she labelled the “systematic radicalisation” enabled by algorithms on social media platforms.

The federal government will deliver a draft of its Digital Duty of Care laws next month, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not indicated he would back the opt-in model.

It will be Contos’ second address to the National Press Club.