Australia news LIVE: Liberal MP angered over last-minute net zero recall; Latest Sudan images reveal grim development; Nancy Pelosi to retire from Congress

Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Friday, November 7. I’m Kayla Olaya, and I’ll be helming our coverage throughout the morning. Here’s what is making headlines today.

• Liberal MPs will be hauled back to Canberra on Wednesday for a crunch meeting to resolve the party’s position on net zero, infuriating moderate Senator Jane Hume, who labelled the divisive debate over the slogan “net zero” as crazy. She argued the Coalition parties broadly agreed on almost everything but those two words.

• Fresh satellite images suggest the next step of a large-scale massacre of civilians is underway in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, which fell to a paramilitary force 11 days ago after an 18-month siege. The images, analysed by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, show what appear to be mass burials being conducted in the city this week – trenches, disturbed earth, and more apparent bodies.

• Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the powerful Speaker of the US House of Representatives, will not run for re-election to Congress in 2026, ending a four-decade career of a progressive Democratic icon often vilified by the right. The 85-year-old congresswoman was first elected in 1987.

• A Sydney council is preparing to stare down local opposition to the redevelopment of one of the nation’s most historic military sites as it unveils a plan to transform Paddington’s Victoria Barracks into affordable housing, public parks and cultural facilities. It comes as the Albanese government is poised to release its long-awaited response to an audit of the sprawling defence estate portfolio.

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the powerful Speaker of the US House of Representatives, will not run for re-election to Congress in 2026, ending a four-decade career of a progressive Democratic icon often vilified by the right.

The 85-year-old congresswoman, first elected in 1987, made her announcement overnight, two days after voters in California overwhelmingly approved “Proposition 50”, a state redistricting effort aimed at flipping five House seats to Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

Nancy Pelosi has announced her retirement.Credit: AP

“I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service,” Pelosi said in a video posted on X.

California’s embrace of “Proposition 50” was in response to a similar move by Texas to boost Republicans’ chances. The political strategy was spearheaded by California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, but it was right in Pelosi’s wheelhouse.

She has been at the forefront in battling for control of the House and especially taking on Republican Donald Trump, who feuded with her in his first presidential term from 2017-2020.

Read the full story here.

The first images showed blood stains on the sand and bodies. Now, fresh satellite images suggest the next step of a large-scale massacre of civilians is underway in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, which fell to a paramilitary force 11 days ago after an 18-month siege.

The images, analysed by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, show what appear to be mass burials being conducted in the city this week – trenches, disturbed earth, and more apparent bodies.

“We’re seeing a velocity of killing that can only be compared to the Rwandan genocide,” Yale lab executive director Nathaniel Raymond told CNN this week, saying sources had told his lab that thousands of people were dead.

Paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized El Fasher on October 26 after trapping and starving its population of 260,000 amid a brutal two-year civil war against the Sudanese army.

Read the full story here.