Australia news LIVE: Pauline Hanson addresses Melbourne anti-immigration rally; Death toll from Hong Kong apartment complex fire rises to 146

Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Monday, December 1. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage for the first half of today. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon got married in a Saturday ceremony at The Lodge in Canberra. Toto Albanese, Australia’s first dog, was the designated ring-bearer for the first wedding of a sitting prime minister.
• The death toll from the apartment complex fire that burnt in Hong Kong for more than two days has risen to 146 as forensic workers continue the grim process of retrieving bodies from the blackened towers. The inferno tore through seven of the eight blocks at the Wang Fuk Court apartment complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po neighbourhood on Wednesday.
• One Nation leader Pauline Hanson addressed an anti-immigration rally in Melbourne over the weekend. She told the crowd at the Put Australia First protest in Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens yesterday that she would run candidates in next year’s state election.

• Ukraine is turning to European allies to hold the line against American pressure for a peace deal with Russia that cedes power and territory, as top negotiators meet in Miami with senior aides to US President Donald Trump. Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov issued a positive message about the meeting in Florida around 3am on Monday, AEDT, after arriving for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.

• Floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across south-east Asia have killed over 500 people, officials said on Sunday, as relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continued over the weekend. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand faced large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait fuelling heavy rains and wind gusts for a week.

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

Former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says he will decide whether to move to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation “in the next couple of weeks”, after quitting the National Party last week.

Asked this morning whether he planned to move to the party, he said, “I’m strongly considering it and I haven’t done it yet, but look … I understand there’s going to be lots of commentary like this, and I just have to, I’ll let it go through.

“But people should review the tape. You know, when I made that short statement in the chamber, the member for Cowper, Pat Conaghan, the member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, were down there back slapping and shaking hands ... In fact, Pat and Darren looked happier than Jodie and Albo.

“They were, they were happier at the divorce ... metaphorically, than they were at their wedding. And this just goes to show you how toxic the relationship had become. And if you’re in a toxic relationship, you try to redeem it, but after a while, you just get out of it,” he told Seven’s Sunrise.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, to grant him a pardon from corruption charges, seeking to end a long-running trial that has bitterly divided the nation.

Netanyahu, who has been at war against Israel’s legal system over the charges, said the request would help unify the country at a time of momentous change in the region. But it immediately triggered denunciations from opponents, who said a pardon would weaken democratic institutions and send a dangerous message that he’s above the rule of law.

Netanyahu had submitted a request for a pardon to the legal department of the Office of the President, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Credit: AP

Herzog’s office called it an “extraordinary request,” carrying with it “significant implications.”

Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases, accusing him of exchanging favours with wealthy political supporters. He hasn’t been convicted of anything.

The Israeli PM rejects the allegations and has described the case as a witch hunt orchestrated by the media, police and judiciary.

AP