Australia news LIVE: US strikes Iran again as Tehran warns of ‘existential war’; One Nation senator criticised for antisemitic post

Good morning and welcome to our live news coverage for Thursday, July 16. I’m Clare Sibthorpe and I’ll be keeping you up to date with all the headlines. Here’s what’s making news so far.

US strikes Iran again as Tehran warns of ‘existential war’: The US has launched another wave of strikes on Iran’s coastal defences and missile sites after reimposing a naval blockade of its ports, while Iran has threatened to shut off more regional energy exports, saying it is engaged in an “existential war” with America.

Revealed: The optometrists punished for putting patients before sales: Optometrists are being pressured to hit sales targets, rush consults and turn away clinical appointments during peak spending periods at multimillion-dollar optometry chains that their employees say prioritise profits over health.

Malcolm Roberts faces fresh condemnation for over notorious antisemitic mural post: A 2024 post made on X in May 2024 has drawn fresh condemnation from Jewish leaders after the One Nation senator continued to promote a string of conspiracy theories laced with antisemitic tropes, including the continued use of “globalist parasites” and claiming climate change was driven by policies “cabal” of “the major banking families in the world”.

Stoush over whether burning waste for energy is renewable: A heated dispute has erupted in the renewable energy sector over whether generating electricity from incinerating waste should count as clean energy, with one of the peak bodies slamming it as dirty and deceptive.

A test plane of Project Sunrise, Qantas’ bid to launch the world’s longest non-stop commercial flights, will fly from Toulouse in France to Melbourne to arrive on Friday, July 24.

The A350-1000ULR, filled with sensitive test equipment, will make the journey of more than 20 hours from the Airbus factory as “part of [its] ongoing test flight program”, said a source with knowledge of the flight.

The plane, with the Airbus test registration F-WULR, contains specially designed monitoring equipment to evaluate its performance across various conditions and flight types. Its seats are fitted with piping which imitate both the weight and heat of passengers. It also has engineering monitoring stations to measure how the plane responds to various stresses.

Melburnians will be particularly pleased with the visit, after Qantas revealed last month that it doesn’t intend to base the A350, specially modified for ultra-long haul flight, out of Melbourne.

Australia’s electricity prices and the Albanese government’s commitment to net zero will hamper the prime minister’s AI ambitions, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce says.

“How are you going to do it with some of the dearest electricity in the world?” Joyce asked on ABC radio earlier this morning, referring to the PM’s plan to encourage AI investment while protecting jobs, housing and the environment.

“These will be the most unaffordable data centres in the world. They might get built, but they are not going to be competitive.”

Joyce said he suspected AI developers will turn elsewhere after the government passes its proposed AI regulations early next year.

“I think what you’ll see in Australia is sort of residual capacity built, but the main game will be somewhere else where they are not so stupid as to try and run a nation on intermittent power, solar panels, wind towers.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suggested workplace AI consultations will be baked into enterprise bargaining agreements and not next year’s AI legislation.

The PM was asked on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night whether he supported the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ call for workers to be consulted before AI-induced changes are introduced to their workplace.

In response, Albanese said enterprise bargaining “of course occurs and … that encourages employers and employees to work together”.

“I don’t sit in those negotiations,” he said. “[But] I support the concept that businesses and unions are always better off – and businesses which are most successful – are ones that bring their workforce with them, including on the journey of change.”

Albanese said AI was already having an impact on many workplaces, including the ABC.

“I’m encouraging workers to recognise that artificial intelligence is happening. Change is happening. And they have an interest in shaping that change because, if not, then they don’t get a say,” he said.

American soldiers will have their testosterone levels screened to ensure the US military is a “high-T” environment, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced.

Soldiers aged 30 and over will be tested as part of their annual health assessment, while the test will be voluntary for those under 30.

Testosterone replacement therapy will be provided for anyone who needs it, the Pentagon said, though it would be entirely the soldiers’ choice.

Hegseth made the announcement in a video – captioned “the High-T Department of War” – which was directed at service members and posted on social media.

“It’s not about artificial enhancement,” Hegseth said. “It’s about restoring and optimising your natural capabilities, protecting your longevity, and ensuring you have the biological foundation required to sustain the fight.

“By addressing these health markers early, we’re keeping you on the leading edge of lethality and giving you the same level of support that you give this nation.”

The American military has fired upon an unladen oil tanker heading for an Iranian port, in the first major incident since the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz restarted yesterday.

US Central Command said its forces hit the Curacao-flagged M/T Belma, which was attempting to sail to Iran’s Kharg Island, after it ignored multiple warnings that it was in violation of the blockade.

“A US aircraft disabled the vessel after firing hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack,” Centcom said. “The ship is no longer transiting to Iran.”

US forces redirected two other commercial vessels during the first 24 hours of the blockade, Centcom said. Those ships complied with the orders.

The blockade only applies to vessels transiting to and from Iranian ports and is designed to choke Iran’s economy. The blockade was in place between April and June, but ended when the memorandum of understanding was signed in mid-June.

However, US President Donald Trump this month reinstated the blockade after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired upon ships in the Strait of Hormuz in violation of that MOU.

Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Tim Ayres rejected a suggestion that Australian data centre company AirTrunk’s move to invest $30 billion in India to develop data centres was a “lost opportunity”.

“It’s terrific actually to see an Australian company like Airtrunk extending its operations overseas,” he said to ABC AM.

“That’s not at all inconsistent with Australia securing the data centre investment that we need here in Australia. Australia is a terrific place to invest for data centre and artificial intelligence development. It’s in our sovereign national interest that key functions like training happen here in Australia, so they are shaped by Australians, consistent with Australia’s national interest.”

Ayres said the shift from data centre guidelines to mandatory regulation worked in the “Australian interest”.

The US began a fresh round of strikes against Iran at 5am AEST, the military said – marking an increase in the frequency of American attacks. The previous wave of strikes had only finished hours earlier.

“The strikes are targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway vital to global commerce,” US Central Command said.

“The US military is holding Iran accountable at the commander in chief’s direction.”

Iran’s Press TV reported that explosions had been heard near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

As senators line up to probe Telstra executives over a nationwide outage, telecommunications analysts say the telco’s reputation is heavily bruised, but a mass exodus of customers is unlikely.

Last week’s outage cut hundreds of people off from Triple Zero, halted trains in Victoria and NSW and brought down eftpos systems nationally, prompting three investigations and a Senate inquiry that is set to question executives, including boss Vicki Brady, at midday on Friday.

But leading market analysts believe the incident will not permanently damage the mobile provider’s subscriber base or its ability to charge a premium for its services, largely because of the spotty track records of its primary rivals.

MST Marquee equity research analyst Fraser McLeish said he expected the customer and financial impact to be minimal, provided the failure was not repeated.

“Telstra generally has a very strong track record on network reliability and I don’t expect many customers to look to change provider because of a single outage,” McLeish said.

Read more from David Swan here.

Rescuers were still searching for three people missing after a boat involved in a memorial service sank in the cold, fast-moving waters of San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz Island, authorities said Wednesday.

One person was pulled from the water but later died, and 16 others were rescued Tuesday afternoon after the boat took on water and capsized, San Francisco fire chief Dean Crispen said. He said the passengers on board were mostly family members, and that a dog also died.

Witnesses reported “rough seas,” the fire chief said, with rescuers saying swells reached up to 5 feet (1.5 metres). However, marine weather conditions were not severe enough to warrant a small craft advisory.

The vessel was a 50-foot (15-metre) pleasure craft with a cabin and upper deck named Volare, said Lt. Mariano Elias, a fire department spokesperson. It was registered out of Stockton, California, which sits at the eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The White House is considering releasing sensitive intelligence on China and its ability to interfere in US elections that some Trump officials worry could be misleading, according to four people with knowledge of the deliberations.

Trump may disclose the intelligence, which was collected and analysed during his first term, in a speech that he is due to deliver on Thursday night, when he is expected to outline information about alleged vulnerabilities in the voting infrastructure that could allow foreign interference in US elections, the sources said.

Reuters could not determine the details of the intelligence, but sources said it is classified and related to whether China had the intention or ability to disrupt US elections in 2020. The sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss classified material, said the intelligence did not show Beijing had manipulated or changed votes.

Trump has continued to repeat the debunked claim that the 2020 election was rigged, suggesting a foreign actor was involved in flipping votes despite legal rulings that Democrat Joe Biden won.

His speech on Thursday may reveal new information about a year-long effort by the Trump administration to collect and review material on what the White House says are vulnerabilities in the nation’s voting infrastructure.

Reuters