As it happened: Trump demands Hamas return hostage bodies to Israel, six Palestinians killed by Israeli fire; Instagram limits teens to PG-13 content as social media ban looms

Thank you for reading over national news live blog. It has now closed but will return tomorrow morning for rolling updates of the biggest stories from Australia and around the world.

Here’s a look back at today’s biggest stories:

• US President Donald Trump has warned Hamas to disarm or be disarmed – “quickly and perhaps violently” – after its fighters executed a group of men in Gaza City, and Israel accused the terrorist group of violating the ceasefire agreement by failing to return the remains of all dead hostages. A grisly video of the execution, verified by newswire Reuters, came as Israel vowed to halve the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza and keep the checkpoint from Egypt closed after Hamas returned just four bodies yesterday – although it reportedly handed over another four to the Red Cross early this morning.
• The top coroner in NSW has taken the rare step of issuing an open letter after the state reached the “profoundly distressing milestone” of recording the highest-ever number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths in custody in a single year. “Twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have died in custody in NSW so far in 2025 – the highest number ever recorded in a single year, with more than two months remaining in the calendar,” the coroner wrote in the letter released today.
• Controversial US right-wing commentator Candace Owens has lost her battle to enter Australia after her application to overturn her visa rejection was refused by the nation’s highest court. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke refused the far-right firebrand’s visa in October 2024 on the basis she would “incite discord”, ahead of a planned speaking tour. Owens argued her visa rejection was anti-free speech, but today the High Court ruled the refusal was valid.
• Disgraced former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann will head to mediation in his bid to have the government foot his legal bill following a raid on his home. The National Anti-Corruption Commission raided his home in June 2024 amid an investigation into claims he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines. Lehrmann is suing Commissioner Paul Brereton and federal Labor government minister Don Farrell over the legal costs he incurred during the investigation, and a court order has today mandated mediation between Lehrmann and Farrell by December 1.

• Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina has been toppled in a military coup that capped weeks of youth protests over poverty, power outages and a lack of opportunity in the Indian Ocean island country.

Labor MP Peter Khalil said the treasurer’s decision to water down superannuation change was responsible governance.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed on Monday that the government would establish a 40 per cent tax rate for earnings on super balances above $10 million, while earnings on balances above $3 million will be taxed at 30 per cent. Plans to tax unrealised gains at 30 per cent have been ditched.

“Good policies take time to develop” Khalil told the ABC, before taking aim at the opposition.

“We don’t just do them at the drop of a hat like the other mob, who turn things around quickly. We actually take the time to make sure we are putting policies forward that … make … the superannuation system fairer, more efficient and sustainable.”

But Liberal senator Jane Hume said it was the most humiliating backdown from a treasurer in decades.

“I can’t recall a time when a prime minister has put a treasurer back in his box like Anthony Albanese has done to Jim Chalmers.”

Liberal senator Jane Hume has thrown her support behind a speech made by her colleague James Patterson and said the party needs to stop its “worldwide apology tour” after a devastating election loss and develop productive policy.

In an expansive speech last night, Patterson urged the Liberals to unite, warning that a Nigel Farage-style populist approach could destroy the party, following the departure of rebel MP Andrew Hastie from the Coalition frontbench.

“I thought it was a great speech,” Hume told the ABC. “It is about time we stopped this worldwide apology tour and started getting together that legislative agenda, alternative policy agenda we can take to the next election and hold this terrible government to account for its failures.”

She said the Liberal Party needed to appeal to the mainstream population across Australia not just fringe voters.

A World Health Organisation team came under attack while accompanying a United Nations convoy in Ukraine on Tuesday but managed to deliver medical supplies to the city of Bilozerka, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Two World Food Program trucks were damaged in the incident. Tedros reiterated calls for attacks on humanitarian workers to end.

“We cannot repeat loudly and often enough that humanitarians are #NotATarget. Attacks on humanitarians MUST END,” he said in a post on X.

Reuters