Australia news LIVE: Former US vice president Dick Cheney dead at 84; Reddit, Kick to be added to under-16s social media ban on December 10

The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines hit 46 on Tuesday, officials said, including six crew members of a military helicopter that crashed during the powerful storm that unleashed heavy rains and floods across the central region.

The Huey helicopter went down in Agusan del Sur on the island of Mindanao, where it was conducting a humanitarian disaster response mission, the military said. Six bodies of the crew were recovered, and an investigation was under way.

The crash took place before midday, about 270 kilometres from the island of Cebu, the worst-hit region, where local authorities said 39 people had been killed by drowning or from falling debris. One person was reported dead on the neighbouring island of Bohol.

The Philippines, which is hit by an average of 20 tropical storms each year, is recovering from a run of disasters, including earthquakes and severe weather events in recent months. In September, Super Typhoon Ragasa swept across northern Luzon, forcing schools and government offices to shut down as it brought fierce winds and torrential rain.

Although Kalmaegi – locally named Tino – has gradually lost strength since making landfall early on Tuesday, it continued to lash the country with winds of 120km/h and gusts of 165km/h as it swept across the Visayas islands headed for northern Palawan and towards the South China Sea.

Reuters

Liberal backbencher Jane Hume said four Coalition MP’s comments about late-term abortions had horrified the women in her party.

Andrew Hastie, Barnaby Joyce, Tony Pasin and Henry Pike raised concerns in parliament this week that laws guaranteeing paid leave for parents of stillborn children could be used by mothers whose pregnancies were terminated.

“I respect other people’s views, but let’s not use important legislation as a vehicle for personal crusades,” Hume told Sky News.

“I think that there was a bit of horror from many of the women in our party … this is a very serious and deeply personal issue.”

Hume said the men had created a distraction and made an error in judgement.

“I’m not sure how much experience they personally have had in this space, and I don’t want to speculate on that, but what I would say is that I have always supported a woman’s right to choose, as I know have the majority of people in my party.”

Hume declined to comment on whether Hastie’s remarks would hurt his leadership prospects in the eyes of her colleagues.

“Sussan Ley is our leader, and I know that this is not something that she would have supported, and I’m very pleased to see that that legislation has gone through unamended,” she said.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud says any debate on abortion must be “driven by individual experience” and people’s feelings on the topic need to be respected.

It comes after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said comments from Coalition backbenchers on late-term abortions and their interaction with new industrial relations laws were insensitive.

“I think you’ve got to appreciate abortion is a very sensitive topic, and it’s driven by individual experience. I think you’ve got to come to it from a perspective of respect, and I think everyone comes to it from a different perspective. I don’t I don’t begrudge anyone having comments of personal beliefs of that stature,” Littleproud told this masthead.

“I personally believe in a woman’s right, but I also passionately believe that we should be encouraging more adoption to go through to full term. I wouldn’t have my brother, who is adopted, if his biological parents didn’t make that decision. So I come from a different personal perspective as everybody else,” he said.

Last week, four Coalition MPs revived debate over “late-term abortions” in parliament, raising concerns that laws guaranteeing paid leave for parents of stillborn children would be used by mothers whose pregnancies are terminated.

“I think this is where we just need to be careful to understand the life experience of everybody that makes comment on this. I don’t pass any judgment because everyone, like me, has a different life experience in how their position is formed,” Littleproud said.

A cargo plane has crashed on take-off from the main airport in Louisville, Kentucky, with video showing widespread fire consuming buildings near the airport and smoke billowing into the sky.

The flight, UPS2976, was a wide-body McDonnell Douglas MD-11aircraft bound for Honolulu, Hawaii. Louisville airport is a major hub for UPS.

The US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the crash occurred on take-off about 9.15am AEDT and would be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Bureau.

Inman Grant has dismissed concerns that teens will find a way around the social media ban, saying allowing young people to continue to engage with inappropriate content while logged out of an account was “a feature rather than a bug” of the laws.

“They shouldn’t be surfacing up content that’s appropriate for [a] 35-year-old man,” she said.

She said tech companies have could identify those trying to use virtual private networks to hide their location, and if platforms suspected a user was trying to flout the rules they could again verify the age of the account holder.

“We also know generative AI, masks or graphics platforms can be used on age verification systems,” she said.

“We’ve given [the platforms] very specific specifications as to how we think they should tackle and they’ve given us comfort that this is something that they can do.”

Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, is in Canberra speaking about the teen social media ban after the government added Reddit and Kick to its list of platforms that will be banned from December 10.

She said platforms were not banned based on what harms or risks they posed, but were measured against the law’s threshold of being “solely or significantly” for the purpose of online social interaction.

Inman Grant said assessors carefully considered gaming site Roblox, which she described as “on the line” because of social media elements built in, before ruling it exempt from the ban.

“If the online game play is the significant or sole purpose, if that were taken away, would the kids still use that messaging functionality to chat, probably not,” she said. “That’s just to give you some insight in terms of how much rigour that was done with each of the assessments.”

Inman Grant said streaming platform Twitch was under consideration for inclusion in the ban.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen for the hefty cost he said would hit Australian taxpayers if the government hosted the COP31 climate summit in 2026.

“This is pure insanity, for nothing more than the vanity project for Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen to try to run around on the world stage, all on the Australian taxpayers’ expense,” Littleproud told Sky News this morning.

His comments follow the news should Australia host COP31, it would likely cost taxpayers about $1 billion, according to the government’s own estimates.

The National Party leader urged the government to cede the conference hosting to Turkey.

“If Turkey still wants it, well, they should have it. If they want to spend a billion dollars on this, I think this just goes to the heart of how this government is out of touch… This is not going to achieve anything other than cost Australian taxpayers,” Littleproud said.

Sussan Ley says she’s okay with colleagues publicly prosecuting their climate target arguments in the media because she supports them speaking their minds.

“Colleagues are talking about their passionate views on this subject, as they should, and if they talk to journalists, that’s okay because they’re expressing their passionately held views,” she told ABC Radio National Breakfast.

Ley dismissed suggestions she had let the net zero saga drag on too long – allowing each case to be prosecuted in the headlines – and defended the Liberal Party climate policy review that has been under way since the election.

There are a lot of different opinions in our party room. I said [when I became leader] I wouldn’t make captain’s calls. I’m doing exactly what I said I would do, and actually, the process has been good. It’s allowed us to come together, it’s allowed us to talk not just to each other, but to industry and experts.