Australia news LIVE: Albanese joins Bowen at UN climate talks; Teals launch donation rush ahead of controversial new rules; Meghan’s father removes ankle monitor after arrest

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Wednesday, November 11. Here’s what is making news today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on his way to Turkey to join Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen at the UN’s annual climate negotiations. Bowen has signalled he would like an agreement on electrification to be part of a final COP text, but India, the world’s third-largest greenhouse polluter, has already opposed the proposition.
• The political fundraising machine behind the teal independents is scrambling to raise millions before new donation caps take effect and has accused Labor and the Coalition of rigging the rules to protect themselves.

• Thomas Markle snr, the estranged father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, cut off his ankle monitor after he was arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material, the US Department of Justice said. Markle was first arrested on Friday and the judge permitted him to be released from custody on the condition that he submit to home detention and electronic monitoring.

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Wearing his father’s World War II medals, Peter Rose came to his first Remembrance Day in Martin Place this morning, to commemorate those who fought and died.

He says he’s a frequent attendee at Anzac Day ceremonies.

Remembrance Day is not a public holiday but is marked in most Commonwealth countries and commemorates the end of hostilities in World War I.

“It’s a shame though, a lot of people served for the Commonwealth [and] lost their lives overseas,” Rose said.

Washington: House Republicans have set aside a resolution to impeach US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, halting an effort to remove the Pentagon chief for his conduct in office and his handling of the war in Iran.

But after US President Donald Trump signalled strong support for Hegseth, Republicans lawmakers largely stood by the secretary. They rejected the impeachment effort led by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and backed by Democrats.

Hegseth rebuked the effort in his first news conference in months, portraying Massie as a rogue congressman and arguing he had committed none of the high crimes required in the Constitution for his removal. He framed the effort as an indictment against the nation’s service members and their successes and said it was undermining American forces “in real time”.

“This is not patriotism,” Hegseth said. “This is sabotage.”

But today’s vote may only delay an impeachment push against Hegseth, with Democrats set to take control of the House and Senate in January following last week’s midterm elections.

AP

Nick McKenzie, investigative journalist at this masthead, says yesterday’s evidence at the Victorian royal commission into construction was “extraordinary”, showcasing a “mafia-style system”.

“Day two of the royal commission, and already we have evidence that government officials were saying the minister’s office is telling you, i.e., a major company, to do a deal with the union to get its favoured companies on, and you might win further projects down the track,” McKenzie told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

“That’s not the way government should run, [it] is not the way big build projects should have been handed out.

“And I guess the worst thing, perhaps, about all this, is the companies the union forced on this project after this intervention were, in at least one case, linked to serious corruption and some criminal figures.”

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume claims Jim Chalmers is “in trouble” after senior ministers and the prime minister fielded questions in the last couple of days about whether the treasurer is up to the task following another interest rate rise last week – the fifth of 2026.

During a press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was confident that Chalmers would remain treasurer until the next election.

“When a prime minister has to go in and defend his treasurer to that extent, you know that he’s in trouble,” Hume told News24.

Yesterday, senior minister Murray Watt urged his Labor colleagues to stop “undermining” Chalmers, prompting questions about how long the treasurer would remain in the job.

“Businesses are struggling. The economy is collapsing … This is a treasurer that is under pressure. His colleagues are leaking against him, and the prime minister is having to come out and defend him through gritted teeth.”

Barnaby Joyce would rather “take [his] eyes out with a fork” than “spend time in a room” with leaders from around the world who have gathered this week for the COP31 climate summit in Turkey.

Although the One Nation MP was asked what he thought about Chris Bowen’s role at the conference, Joyce singled out 23-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in an unprompted spray, telling News24 he found her a “nuisance” and could not stand her “screeching” and “babbling”.

Joyce claimed the conference was “a waste of time”, and said the government had wasted taxpayer money on sending Australian leaders to the negotiations.

“We’re just throwing our money up against the wall. That’s all that’s happening there.”

London: A senior US Army soldier has been arrested in Britain on suspicion of assisting Russian intelligence, British police said, after the US removed aircraft from British military bases over a separate apparent threat from Iran.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest of the 41-year-old man related to “allegations of espionage, which is of the utmost concern to the United States and our allies”.

Brigadier General Sean Stinchon, the commanding general of US Army Counterintelligence Command, added: “The alleged conduct of a senior soldier, entrusted with sensitive information, is a sobering reminder that insider threats are real and persistent.”

The arrest, which took place near the city of Gloucester, west England, overnight “is not linked to any other ongoing counter-terrorism policing investigations”, British police said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young wants more information on the safety and security standards for artificial intelligence developers after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a new AI regulator yesterday.

“The details are all a bit vague out of yesterday’s announcement, so it’s a bit hard to say exactly how robust they are, how strong they are. So we need to see those details,” she told ABC’s Radio National this morning.

Hanson-Young said she was concerned about AI data centres being rolled out around the country before regulations were in place.

“While the government’s announcing this vague architecture for some type of security standard, they’re rolling out the red carpet when it comes to the data centres.”

Minister for Transport Catherine King has called news Qantas is cutting 850 local roles and outsourcing them overseas “incredibly disappointing” and warned the airline that engaging in mass outsourcing in the past had substantially marred its reputation.

“It does seem to have been part of the business model for Qantas for some time. I think we saw that the last time that it engaged in this sort of level of outsourcing during COVID that it did a significant amount of damage to its social licence,” she told ABC’s Radio National this morning.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qantas sent its ground-handling operations to external contractors.

The decision affected close to 2000 workers and resulted in the largest industrial relations penalty in Australian history after the Transport Workers’ Union sued Qantas, arguing the airline had taken the action to prevent workers from exercising their rights to collectively bargain.

King called on Qantas to redeploy the Australian staff.

“My call to them is to work very closely with the unions to retrain, redeploy as many of those 850 people as possible because we need those AI capabilities here in Australia as well.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has accused Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen of “living in an alternative reality” and ignoring the energy crisis facing everyday Australians.

Bowen is leading climate talks at COP31 in Turkey, where he is president of negotiations.

“He’s off lecturing the globe on energy policy and emission reduction. Whilst here at home, we’ve got wholesale prices expected to double,” McKenzie told Sunrise this morning.

“We’re shutting down … coal-fired power stations right across the country by 2030, removing five megawatts of power from our grid. Meanwhile, demand’s going through the roof.”

McKenzie repeated the promise that the Coalition would scrap net zero mandates and invest in keeping coal-fired power stations open.

The prime minister has laid a wreath at Changi Chapel in Singapore to mark Remembrance Day, on his way to Turkey for COP31.

The site commemorates those held at the Changi Prisoner of War Camp during the Japanese occupation in World War II.

“The 15,000 Australians who were interned here in Changi represent the best of the Australian character. They showed courage, selflessness, sacrifice, and mateship,” Anthony Albanese told reporters overnight.

“They looked after each other here and then when so many of them were transferred to the Burma-Siam Railway, undergoing horrendous conditions.”

Albanese said a previous visit to the railway with survivors, including Labor luminary Tom Uren, a personal mentor to the prime minister, had been an honour.

“Today we honour all veterans, and we honour all serving personnel in the Australian Defence Force. Lest we forget,” he said.