TRANSCRIPT
- Queensland records its second flood-related death
- Ten dead in a mass shooting in Sweden
- The second day concludes in the trial for former Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales
A woman has died in Queensland after days of floods and downpour in the north of the state.
The body of the 82-year-old was discovered in a cane paddock at Ingham, north of Townsville.
The woman's death is the second flood-related fatality amid the record-breaking rain that has lashed north Queensland, sparking floods that have cut power, damaging roads and forcing hundreds of people to flee their homes.
This local resident says they are grateful not to have lost everything.
"The most we had, it didn't get into the house. The police were very good here. They put sandbags in the front of the door there. If the sandbag hadn't been there - it might've just gotten into the house. But we had all towels there to stop it anyway."
**
At least ten people have been killed after a shooting at a Swedish school.
Swedish police say the shooting took place at an adult education centre in Orebro, 200km west of Stockholm.
The Risbergska school is for adults who did not complete their formal education or failed to get the marks to continue to higher education, but is also located on a campus that houses schools for children.
Local police chief Roberto Eid Forest says the gunman is believed to be among those killed and a search is continuing for other possible victims.
**
The Australian government has banned a Chinese artificial intelligence model that shocked the tech world after its release.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has cited national security concerns for the order which will remove all DeepSeek products, applications and services from federal government systems and devices.
The Commonwealth has not placed a blanket government ban on similar services offered by American company OpenAI, despite concerns its AI assistant ChatGPT could incorporate sensitive information from prompts into its dataset, and later expose it.
Australia's action follows similar moves made by the Taiwanese government, which banned its departments from using DeepSeek's services because of the risk it said it posed to information security.
**
Concerns have been raised for the preservation of hundreds of Aboriginal cultural sites in Victoria's Grampians Mountain Range, as a large bushfire continues to burn.
The National Park contains some 500 cultural sites, including the states richest concentration of indigenous rock art.
Trent Nelson is a Cultural Heritage Technical Specialist.
"Some areas have been affected by fire and some we don't know yet how the level of intensity has been around these sites. We are working with tangible cultural heritage in the landscape. So specifically rock art, scar trees and artefact scatters. Those are - I guess - open to impact by fire. We are making sure that cultural heritage is also a priority, and doing our efforts and work on the ground to protect these sites is really important to us."
While some evacuation orders have been downgraded in the Grampians region, residents are being urged to monitor the situation.
**
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has confirmed an investigation into a scheme that oversees the cancellation of income support payments.
Ombudsman Iain Anderson has released a statement saying it is in the public interest to share his plan to investigate what is known as the Targeted Compliance Framework, a process used by the Department of Employment and Services Australia to cancel Centrelink payments.
The probe is believed to have come from a complaint by the Australian Council for Social Service.
ACOSS raised concerns in December that around 1,000 income support payments may have been cancelled unfairly between April 2022 and July 2024.
**
Republicans have voted to advance the nomination of Robert F Kennedy Junior for secretary of health in the Donald Trump administration.
The GOP members on the senate finance committee were unanimous in their vote to advance his nomination, while all Democrats opposed the move, like Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon.
"Do senators want their legacy to include disregarding basic health science and instead elevate conspiracy theorists? Making Robert Kennedy Secretary of Health and Human Services, in my view, colleagues, would be a grave threat to the health of the American people."
The committee vote means Mr Kennedy's nomination now will face a full senate vote, despite concerns about the work he's done to sow doubts around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers.
Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.
**
In sport, the trial of former Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales has entered its second day at a Madrid high court.
Men's team head coach Luis de la Fuente is set to appear in court to testify.
Footballer Jenni Hermoso has already testified on day one, telling the court she did not consent to the kiss by Mr Rubiales after the 2023 Women's World Cup Final.
Mr Rubiales is currently on trial for sexual assault over the kiss, which triggered an international backlash against sexism in sport.
