Australia news LIVE: Pauline Hanson says daughter could lead One Nation; Telstra boss Vicki Brady to front Triple Zero inquiry; US-Iran strikes escalate as truce unravels

A handful of oil tankers have been seen conducting ship-to-ship transfers off the coast of Oman, a sign that ships are continuing to sail through the Strait of Hormuz before offloading their cargoes onto other vessels after recent Iranian attacks on shipping.

At least four tankers were transferring cargoes near the ports of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and Sohar in Oman, satellite images from the European Union’s Copernicus browser showed.

Those areas have been the main spots where ships shuttling in and out of Hormuz have transferred their cargoes onto vessels that would ultimately sail on to their eventual destination.

It wasn’t clear when the vessels arrived, but there’s little incentive for ships to linger in those waters, due to the volatile geopolitical situation and the need to pay extra insurance costs.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has moved to extinguish a political crisis sparked by his dismissal of a reformist defence minister, tapping a security official who has overseen Ukraine’s long-range strikes against Russia for the post.

Rare protests had erupted in Ukraine over the ouster of Mykhailo Fedorov in a surprise government reshuffle. The dismissal brought into the open a dispute between the young tech evangelist and Kyiv’s top general during the president’s second shake-up in a year.

Hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital Kyiv and other cities to demand Fedorov – who has aimed to reshape Kyiv’s outmanned army into a more efficient fighting force against Russia – be reappointed. A senior commander of Kyiv’s air war had also resigned.

In a statement, Zelensky said he was appointing Yevhenii Khmara, acting head of Ukraine’s SBU domestic security service, as acting defence minister and would ask parliament to approve him permanently for the post.

Iran has unveiled a huge billboard in central Tehran showing images of President Donald Trump and his family above coffins draped in the US flag.

The mural bears the message “blood for blood” and directly threatens Trump with revenge for the US strikes that killed senior Iranian leaders and their own families.

Another recent display shows the president in an open coffin with the words “We will kill Trump” written in Persian and English. The latest billboard appears to show Trump and first lady, Melania Trump, along with his five children Ivanka, Donald Jnr, Eric, Barron and Tiffany.

Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war alongside his daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and infant granddaughter.

Two Australian cities have topped an investment bank’s index tracking the price of ciggies and beer, as a survey finds more than one in three smokers bought illicit tobacco in the last three months.

Deutsche Bank’s “Oasis Index”, a reference to the song Cigarettes and Alcohol by the band Oasis, tracks the price in US dollars of the cost of five beers and two packs of cigarettes.

Melbourne came in first at $159.02 ($US111.20), up 89 per cent from 2016, while Sydney was a close second at $156.59, beating out London, New York and Singapore.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s latest survey of more than 17,500 people, found that the proportion of smokers who had bought illicit tobacco in the previous three months more than doubled the number in 2022-2023.

National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Mark Butler has disputed claims made by Pauline Hanson during her appearance on the podcast of controversial far-right figure Tommy Robinson, where she said a lot of people on the scheme were “ripping the system off.

“Who are, a lot from the Muslim areas, and they’re getting on the scheme.

“But there’s a lot of Aussies too, other Aussies, so I’m not just going to pick them out, but it is quite known that in the Muslim streets, you’ve got quite a lot in that street who are on the NDIS,” Hanson said.

Butler told ABC Radio National he was “loathe to respond” but disputed her claim.

Sticking with Pauline Hanson’s overseas trip, One Nation’s star recruit says he doesn’t know who is paying for it or what she’s doing there.

Barnaby Joyce says everyone is entitled to a holiday and he does not know exactly what the leader of the party he joined in December is up to.

“It’s a holiday, isn’t it?” Joyce told Nine’s Today program.

“As long as you’re paying for it, darling, I don’t care ... a person’s allowed to have free time,” Joyce said.

Labor elder Wayne Swan says “we know who’s pulling the strings in One Nation” after Pauline Hanson was pictured alongside Gina Rinehart on a European summer vacation.

“[Hanson] has been following Gina Rinehart around from Mar-a-Lago now to the sunsets of Sicily, so I think we know who’s pulling the strings in One Nation now,” Swan told Nine’s Today program this morning.

Politicians can take time off and “even go on holiday overseas if they like”, but people are entitled to draw some conclusions about their policies and character based on who they hang out with while they do it, Swan said.

Former broadcaster and media commentator Neil Mitchell, appearing on the same panel as Swan, pointed out the prime minister also spends time with “the top end of town.

The families of two Australian backpackers who died in Laos after drinking tainted alcohol shots have received the devastating news that no one is likely to do serious jail time, if any at all, for the deaths of their daughters.

Almost two years after Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones unwittingly drank methanol in the backpacker hotspot of Vang Vieng, the families are yet to hear directly from Lao authorities.

Most of the information they have received has come to them in a piecemeal manner, from loved ones of other young travellers (two Danish women, an American man and a British woman) who died in the same event. On Thursday, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) informed them that Lao authorities were unlikely to proceed with charges that, if proven, could have landed the operators of the Tiger alcohol brand in prison for at least five years.

Instead, DFAT told them in a statement, the most serious charge likely to be brought against Tiger carries a maximum penalty of just one year and a fine.

Washington: The man who operates Donald Trump’s teleprompter has been placed on leave after revelations he allegedly made more than $US100,000 ($143,000) on prediction markets based on what the US president would say.

America’s ABC News first reported that federal regulators believed Trump’s long-time technical assistant Gabriel Perez, who has operated his teleprompter as far back as 2016, profited from his inside knowledge of the president’s speeches.

Prediction market company Kalshi alerted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the suspicious activity on its “Mentions” market, where users can bet on whether specific words or phrases are mentioned in a speech.

The allegations – confirmed by the White House – come amid broader speculation about Trump’s family, subordinates or associates potentially using inside information to enrich themselves, given market fluctuations caused by the Iran war.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Perez had been placed on unpaid administrative leave.

Read more: Trump’s teleprompter aide allegedly made $US100,000 betting on his speeches

London: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has named her daughter as a potential leader of the party during a controversial podcast with right-wing activist Tommy Robinson over the threat to Australia and Britain from mass migration.

Hanson praised her daughter, Lee, but said she would have to prove herself because there would be no nepotism in decisions on the future of the party.

The remarks, recorded last week, have been released online at a highly sensitive time for One Nation and its leadership because of tensions over Hanson’s working holiday in Europe and her decision to speak to Robinson, a divisive figure who has been convicted of assault.

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is seen as a successor to Hanson after defecting to her party last year, but Hanson’s daughter has also joined the party as an adviser after running for the Senate at the last federal election.

The one-hour podcast with Robinson featured laughter from the host and his guest as they shared stories of their political careers, while Hanson vowed to win the next election so she could deliver on pledges to slash migration, stop Muslim hate preachers and ban the burqa.

Read more: ‘She’s the future’: Hanson reveals daughter’s leadership potential