Key events
Australian doctor joins largest convoy in history to travel to Gaza in humanitarian aid mission
An Australian doctor is among participants from 10 countries across the world sailing a motor-cruiser to Gaza in a bid to send humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.
Bianca Webb-Pullman, a practicing family medic, has been assigned to Family, the lead vessel in the largest convoy in history to travel to Gaza.
The “Global Sumud Flotilla” is carrying hundreds of participants from more than 40 national delegations.
Last month, two Australian activists said they were “brutalised psychologically” and treated “like criminals” by the Israeli military after a boat they were on was intercepted and detained while attempting to transport aid to Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
You can read more about the latest journey here:
AFL grand final to remain dry but ‘quite breezy’, Bureau of Meteorology forecasts
Those lucky enough to nab a ticket to tomorrow’s AFL grand final can expect the match to remain mostly dry from the first bounce to full time, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has projected.
Forecaster at the BoM, Jonathan Howe, said Melburnians were in for a sunny morning and partly cloudy afternoon with a top of 19 degrees on Saturday.
It should remain mostly dry for the entire match, from the first bounce to the halftime show and then to full time, but we will have fresh westerly winds through the day, so we’ll be quite breezy out there. There’s a slight chance of a shower in the evening, but nothing more than millimetre is expected.
It’s a public holiday in Victoria today for the AFL Grand Final parade in Melbourne. Howe said a shower or two was expected throughout the day, which would otherwise be mild with a top of 22 degrees.
Agent buys cut-price home of retiree with Alzheimer’s
A real estate agent who believed she was doing the “right thing” by buying a vulnerable retiree’s property at $500,000 below market value has had her licence suspended, Australian Associated Press reports.
Rachelle Carmen Nohra took advantage of the 82-year-old with alcohol problems and symptoms of Alzheimer’s by buying his Sydney home for $600,000.
She offered this price despite knowing his property had a similar value to one sold next door for $1.1m. The 82-year-old man was promised he could remain living at the property for the rest of his life.
Nohra, who is the director of Eser Property in Greystanes, bought the man’s home at a “significant undervalue” in a personal capacity in April 2023, a tribunal decision published on Thursday revealed.
She promised that the retiree – known for legal reasons as Mr A – could remain living at the property for the rest of his life. However, their subsequent tenancy agreement allowed him to be evicted with 90 days’ notice, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found.
She had approached the tribunal seeking to overturn a decision by the commissioner for fair trading suspending her licence for a year, imposing a $11,000 fine and directing her to undertake further training.
She contended that she was still a “fit and proper person” to act as a real estate agent.
Instead, Bryant found she had taken advantage of the 82-year-old by buying his property without giving him the chance to get financial or legal advice.
Good morning. It’s Caitlin Cassidy here to guide you through Friday’s news. Let’s get stuck in.
Analysis: From New York to London, Anthony Albanese plots statesmanlike course through global turmoil
Tom McIlroy, our political editor, has been travelling with Albanese and he has written about how the prime minister’s trip has “undoubtedly been a success. Next comes the challenge of making his foreign policy vision into a reality.”
Aukus at top of agenda as Albanese heads for UK talks
Nuclear submarines, Gaza and Ukraine are likely to top Anthony Albanese’s agenda as he touches down in London for the next leg of his three-country visit, Australian Associated Press reports.
The prime minister is scheduled to arrive in London on Friday (AEST) to meet the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, with Donald Trump and the Aukus submarine deal likely to be key topics for discussion, according to Monash-Warwick Alliance international relations researcher Tom Howe.
“I think [Albanese and Starmer] will probably talk about some tactics on how to best manage Trump,” Howe said.
He said the UK commissioned the sixth of its seventh SSN-Aukus submarine for the UK Royal Navy, which will replace its Astute class boat fleet from the late 2030s.
“It was commissioned ahead of schedule, kind of breaking protocol because it hasn’t had its at-sea testing yet, but that matters for Australia … because that submarine took 12 years to build,” Howe said.
“The UK is supposed to be deploying and rotating a submarine out of the base in Perth from 2027, so there’s quite a lot riding on that for Australia.”
Albanese will meet King Charles III at Balmoral Castle, after the monarch stressed the importance of Aukus during Trump’s visit to the UK last week.
The prime minister’s final stop on his diplomatic tour will be in the United Arab Emirates where he will meet President Sheikh Mohammmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
There, the pair will discuss the two countries’ free trade agreement, the Australia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
AFL grand final could spread Queensland measles outbreak
A leading doctor has warned that a measles outbreak in Queensland could spread nationally after this weekend’s AFL grand final because of potential transmission by Brisbane Lions fans travelling to Melbourne, Australian Associated Press reports.
There are currently around 20 active cases of measles in Queensland, with the largest cluster in the Cairns area of the state’s far north.
There are also smaller clusters in central Queensland and the Gold Coast, with a single case confirmed in Brisbane yesterday.
With up to 30,000 Brisbane Lions fans predicted to travel from Queensland to Melbourne for the match against Geelong on Saturday, epidemiologists warn of the highly contagious virus spreading.
The director of infectious diseases at Brisbane’s Mater hospital, Paul Griffin, was once the No 1 Lions ticketholder and will be at the MCG among 100,000 others for the big match on Saturday.
“Fleeting contact, or even being in the same room as someone two hours after they were there infectious with measles is enough to get infected,” Griffin said.
While he admits it unlikely a person with measles will attend, he said that for every known case of the disease there are likely to be 16 to 20 unknown cases.
Measles was eradicated from Australia in 2014, but has made a comeback as vaccination rates declined.
More than 120 cases have been logged so far in 2025.
Griffin described the return of the virus as a “terrible tragedy”.
“This is our biggest [outbreak] since 2019, and with our current trajectory we could continue to break other records,” he said.
Vaccination rates against measles in Queensland have slid to 90.35%, well below the target of 95%.
Griffin put the decline down to misinformation about vaccines in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and complacency about the severity of the illness.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then my colleague Caitlin Cassidy will pick up the strain.
Anthony Albanese will land in London this morning after a successful week of diplomacy at the United Nations in New York. He will discuss the Aukus submarine pact, Gaza and Ukraine with Keir Starmer as well as meeting Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney.
A leading doctor has warned that a measles outbreak in Queensland could spread nationally after this weekend’s AFL grand final because of potential transmission by Brisbane Lions fans travelling to Melbourne. More coming up.
