Australia news LIVE: Ley holds on to leadership as rivals fail to reach agreement on who should challenge; Trump asks Putin to temporarily halt Kyiv bombing

Health Minister Mark Butler this morning provided an update on the Nipah virus, after cases of the deadly infectious disease were detected in India.

“The Nipah virus is very rare, but it’s also very deadly. There have been two confirmed cases in India. The Indian authorities tell us they’ve got that outbreak under control, but nonetheless, we’re monitoring it very, very closely, because this is a very serious virus.

“It’s never been detected in Australia,” Butler told Nine’s Today.

“It doesn’t spread in the way that Covid-19 or the flu does, through airborne viral particles. It really needs quite close personal contact.”

He advised Australians to refer to the national Centre for Disease Control for the latest updates, and said border control is monitoring the situation very closely to decide if it needs to change protocols for incoming travellers or returning Australians.

The World Health Organisation has also compiled a fact sheet with everything you need to know about the Nipah virus, which you can access here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has convened a meeting of his national cabinet this morning in Sydney as Commonwealth and state ministers try to finalise an agreement on a long-running dispute over healthcare funding.

It is a last-ditch effort by the PM to reach a deal on funding for public hospitals after his ministers have been locked in a stalemate with the states and territories.

The states claim the federal government offered in 2023 to increase its share of funding to 42.5 per cent this decade and to 45 per cent by 2035, but faced pushback from Albanese, who accused leaders of failing to constrain budgets.

The clock is ticking to finalise a deal, though, as South Australia will enter caretaker mode in February ahead of the March election.

US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to his request to bring a temporary halt to the bombing of Kyiv for one week as the region experiences frigid temperatures.

However, there has been no confirmation from Moscow.

The call for a pause in attacks comes as Russia has been pounding the country’s critical infrastructure, leaving many around the country without heat in the dead of winter.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this ... extraordinary cold,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday (Washington time), adding that Putin has “agreed to that”.

Read the full story here.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley may hold on to her position for another week as talks between leadership aspirants Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor ended in a stalemate yesterday.

The two met in Melbourne yesterday morning to reach an agreement on who would step aside for the other to step forward in the challenge for Ley’s leadership, but they failed make any headway.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the meeting yesterday during a press conference, saying he was “astonished” at the timing of Hastie and Taylor’s talks which took place just before former Liberal MP Katie Allen’s funeral.

A leadership challenge next week is not off the table, though, as Andrew Hastie’s backers believe they have more support than Taylor and are keen to move quickly.

Good morning and welcome to the national news live blog for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for Friday, January 30. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming your coverage this morning.

• Talks between senior Liberals Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor to reach a deal on replacing Opposition Leader Sussan Ley ended in a stalemate yesterday, as the pair failed to agree on which of the two would stand aside. The meeting happened in the lead-up to the funeral of former Liberal MP Katie Allen, prompting heavy criticism of the Liberals from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said he found this timing “astonishing”.
• The leadership of the Nationals also remains under intense scrutiny. Queensland senator Colin Boyce is set to challenge David Littleproud for the party’s leadership when parliament resumes next Monday.
• The PM is this morning preparing for a meeting of his national cabinet in Sydney that will attempt to resolve long-running negotiations between the Commonwealth and state governments over health and hospital funding.
• Cooler temperatures have slightly eased firefighting efforts in Victoria, where several bushfires are still burning, after the region was battered by an extreme heatwave earlier this week. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the bushfires.
• Abroad, US President Donald Trump says he has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring a temporary halt to the bombing of Kyiv for one week as the region experiences frigid temperatures, saying Putin had agreed. So far, there has been no confirmation from Moscow. The call for a pause in attacks comes as Russia has been pounding the country’s critical infrastructure, leaving many around the country without heat in the dead of winter.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest live news updates from Australia and around the world.