Australia news LIVE: Trump tells thousands of Myanmar citizens on temporary protection visas to go home; Hanson under fire for use of expenses in racism case

Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Wednesday, November 26. My name is Emily Kaine, and I’ll be helming our coverage for the first part of the day. Here’s what is making headlines this morning.

• Yesterday, the Senate passed a censure motion against One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, after the senator wore a burqa into the chamber on Monday. She is now suspended from the Senate for seven days. Hanson said at a press conference yesterday that the censure “didn’t worry [her] at all”. She cannot take part in any parliamentary delegation for the remainder of her term, which ends in 2028.
• Sticking with the One Nation leader, she also came under fire yesterday for billing taxpayers thousands for flights, private cars and hotels to attend a private court matter in Sydney where she was found to have racially discriminated Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.
• A total fire ban has been declared for Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra with temperatures expected to reach the mid-30s on Wednesday, as residents in western NSW face the first catastrophic fire warning issued in the state for over two years.

• The Trump administration has told thousands of Myanmar citizens on temporary protection visas in the US that they have two months to go home because their war-torn and deeply impoverished country is now safe. The decision from the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has appalled advocates, who say it is “deluded” and predicated on falsehoods “so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them”.

• The White House has signalled optimism about efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia while warning that additional negotiations to address remaining sticking points would be necessary. US President Donald Trump said yesterday he believed “we’re getting very close to a deal” while conceding “it’s not easy”.

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

The Trump administration has told thousands of Myanmar citizens on temporary protection visas in the US that they have two months to go home because their war-torn and deeply impoverished country is now safe.

The decision from the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Monday has appalled advocates, who say it is “deluded” and predicated on falsehoods “so egregious that it is hard to imagine who would believe them”.

A soldier from the Myanmar rebel group, the Karen National Liberation Army, recovers from a double amputation in a secret hospital in Thailand.Credit: Kate Geraghty

The military junta led by senior general Min Aung Hlaing has killed, tortured or imprisoned tens of thousands of people since it took power in a coup from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The United Nations estimates almost half of the nation’s 50 million people need humanitarian assistance, as the regime wages a multifront war, enabled by Russian and Chinese weapons, against a disparate collection of armed ethnic groups and civilians turned freedom fighters.

But Noem this week decided to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of more than 4000 US-based citizens of Myanmar, which is still known as Burma in the US, after determining the nation had made “notable progress” in governance and stability.

Read the full story from our South-East Asia correspondent Zach Hope.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson billed taxpayers thousands of dollars for flights, private cars and hotels to attend a private court matter in Sydney where she was found to have racially discriminated Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi.

The Coalition, which has cratered in the polls as Hanson has surged since the election, seized on the Queenslander’s use of expenses, arguing it was not acceptable to use public funds for a personal dispute.

Hanson was yesterday censured by the Senate for Monday’s burqa stunt and suspended for a week’s worth of sitting days, a rare rebuke that united the major parties.

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson speaking in the Senate yesterday. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The One Nation leader hosted Nationals renegade Barnaby Joyce for a steak dinner on Monday night, hours after the provocative stunt. Yesterday, Joyce defended Hanson and hinted that his formal switch to One Nation, first flagged by this masthead last month, could occur as early as Friday, defying warnings from his closest Nationals allies about the peril of linking up with Hanson.

Conservatives have been uneasy about brawling with Hanson since the election as public anxiety about immigration has increased. However, repeated attempts to ban Muslim head coverings and her use of expenses have opened up new terrain for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and the Nationals to start contesting Hanson’s rise.