News live: Turkey to host Cop31 after Australia drops push to hold climate conference; volcano erupts in Java

Turkey to host Cop31 climate conference after Australia drops push

Adam Morton

Turkey will host the Cop31 climate conference after the Australian government dropped its push to hold the event in Adelaide at the last moment despite having launched a more than three-year campaign.

Independent sources confirmed to the Guardian that the fortnight-long event would be held in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya in November 2026, with the details of a deal being thrashed out between the countries’ climate ministers, Chris Bowen and Murat Kurum, at the Cop30 conference in Brazil this week.

Sources said Australia had proposed an arrangement under which it would take on the Cop presidency and lead the negotiations in return for backing down on the hosting venue.

Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, speaks during the Cop30 UN climate conference in Belem, Brazil on 17 November. Photograph: Pablo Porciúncula/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Updated at 22.50 CET

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Cait Kelly

Many locked into poverty amid lack of suitable jobs, report finds

A lack of suitable jobs and a trend towards insecure work is locking hundreds of thousands of people in poverty, according to a new report that finds there are 39 Jobseekers for every entry-level position in Australia.

Anglicare’s annual Jobs Snapshot found that of those, 25 have barriers to work. This is the highest ratio ever recorded by the Snapshot.

Entry-level jobs now make up just 11% of all vacancies. This is their lowest share in a decade.

Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers:

All of this shows that people are being failed by a system that treats unemployment as a personal fault instead of a policy failure.

Taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on private employment providers whose business model depends on compliance and punishment. They profit whether or not people find work. Meanwhile, people are stuck in endless appointments and meaningless activities – all while competing for jobs that simply aren’t there.

It’s time to end this failed experiment. The for-profit model has been running for over twenty years, and long-term unemployment has only grown.

Kasy Chambers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare

Turkey to host Cop31 climate conference after Australia drops push

Adam Morton

Sources said Australia had proposed an arrangement under which it would take on the Cop presidency and lead the negotiations in return for backing down on the hosting venue.

Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, speaks during the Cop30 UN climate conference in Belem, Brazil on 17 November. Photograph: Pablo Porciúncula/AFP/Getty ImagesShare

Updated at 22.50 CET

South Australian education minister says the impact, and cost, from sand clean-up a big burden for the state

Blair Boyer, South Australia’s education minister, spoke about the heavy impact in schools across the state after the ACCC issued multiple warnings over children’s play sand potentially contaminated with asbestos.

Boyer said more than 400 public schools were affected so far, with crews working to either remove or deep clean facilities where the sand was found. Some schools requiring deep cleaning will likely cost “thousands” to remediate.

He told RN Breakfast:

The impact is big, the cost is big, and of course, the worry is big as well, I think, for people out there who are asking questions about how, in this day and age, products like that can make their way into the country …

I think people are rightfully asking a question about how it can get in, how it can be on the shelves of major retailers like Kmart and Target, and then wind up in not just schools and preschools, but it would be in so many homes right around Australia as well.

Boyer has called for a national inquiry into the matter, saying he’s happy for SA to “lead the way” on that effort.

I’m sure people would like some answers about what we can do to make sure we don’t go through a situation like that again.

South Australia’s education minister, Blair Boyer. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare

Updated at 22.31 CET

Police appeal for information after three public place shootings overnight in Sydney

NSW police are calling for information after three public place shootings in south-west Sydney overnight.

Police said the first incident took place just after 11.15pm in the suburb of Fairfield, after shots were reportedly fired at a house before a dark SUV lot the scene. No one was injured inside the home.

A second shooting took place about 11.55pm in the suburb of Bossley Park. Police said a single shot was fired at a caravan parked on the street before a white Audi left the scene. No one was injured.

A third shooting took place just before 3am in the suburb of Wetherill Park after shots were fired at a business before a black SUV or ute left the scene. No one was injured in the event.

Police are looking to see if the incidents are connected, or if there are connections to two overnight car fires in Kings Langley and Lalor Park.

Updated at 22.11 CET

Government reaffirms that best Cop outcome is one that elevates Pacific voices

Pat Conroy, the minister for defence industry, said Australia is still seeking to host the UN climate summit in Adelaide next year, but is being frank with the Australian people that any one country can block a successful bid.

Both Australia and Turkey are vying to host next year’s Conference of the Parties, or Cop, with neither backing down amid a deadlock.

Conroy maintained this morning that all negotiations were about securing the best possible outcome for Pacific nations particularly vulnerable to climate change. He told RN Breakfast:

We’re continuing to negotiate the best possible outcome for progress on climate action and to draw attention to what’s occurring in the Pacific. And so we are still negotiating. We’re still seeking to win the rights to host the Cop in conjunction with the Pacific. But we’re also being frank with the Australian people that the UN framework convention has consensus rules, which means that any one country can block a successful bid.

We’re still seeking to host that Cop, but we’ve been very clear. That our focus is on getting a positive outcome for climate action and highlighting what is going on in the Pacific.

Conroy said Australia would not block Turkey if the country is chosen as the host during the UN process.

We’ve said that we would not veto Turkey if they choose them. They haven’t been chosen yet, but we would not veto it.

An attendee poses for a photo near a sign for the Cop30 UN climate summit in Brazil on Tuesday. Photograph: André Penner/APShare

Updated at 22.03 CET

Josh Taylor

Meta starts notifying Australian teenagers of account shutdowns as social media ban looms

Australian Facebook and Instagram users under 16 will be notified starting Thursday that their accounts will be deactivated by 10 December, as Meta begins to comply with the Albanese government’s social media ban.

Users affected by the ban will receive 14 days’ notice of their pending account deactivation through a combination of in-app messages, email and SMS before their access is cut off.

Photograph: Michele Ursi/Alamy

The ban will affect users on Facebook and Instagram, as well as Threads, as an Instagram account is required to use that platform. Messenger is excluded from the ban – but Meta has had to develop a way for users to keep access to Messenger without a Facebook account as a result of the ban.

Meta will begin stopping access to existing accounts and blocking under-16s from registering new accounts from 4 December, with access removed for all affected accounts by 10 December, the company said.

Speculation over NSW leadership spill continues

Anne Davies

The NSW Liberals appear to be inching toward a leadership spill, although no parliamentarian has yet sought a party meeting and the current leader, Mark Speakman, appears to be digging in.

Key senior members of Speakman’s own moderate faction and some senior right figures said yesterday Speakman’s time was up and that the numbers were coalescing around Kellie Sloane, the member for Vaucluse.

The former journalist has proved a strong communicator and, as health spokesperson, has demonstrated an ability to nettle the premier, Chris Minns.

While Sloane has made it clear she wants the top job, she is said to be unwilling to challenge Speakman, which means one of her colleagues will need to approach him.

The NSW Liberal MP Kellie Sloane at John Laws’ funeral yesterday. Photograph: James Brickwood/AAP

Sources said the need for change is now seen as urgent because on current polling the Liberals could lose up to 10 seats – and many of those seats were held by moderates, which is currently the dominant faction in NSW.

A rout of the size that current polling implies would leave the faction severely weakened.

In practical terms, it is likely that senior moderates will present Speakman with a letter signed by 11 MPs asking for a meeting to be called. Convention dictates that if a a third of the party room want a meeting, it will be called.

But Speakman is still resisting falling on his sword as his colleagues hope he will do.

Updated at 21.01 CET

Krishani Dhanji

Continuing on from that last post:

Ley will also focus on Australia’s role in resolving tensions within our region but warns Australia will have to “credibly deter others” from using force by increasing Australia’s military power and honour commitments it has made to defend friends and allies.

More broadly, Ley will say that Australia should use its “cultural soft power, economic leverage and diplomatic skill” to peacefully resolve disputes and nurture international dialogue.

But she will also take a veiled swipe at China:

Australia should make its view known that the realisation of one nation’s destiny cannot be through the destruction of another’s.

Australia must be able to credibly deter others from using force. We must make the cost of using aggression too high to endure. We do this through increasing our military power and the commitments we make to defend our friends and allies.

Ley will also say the Coalition would look to uplift national pride so “more Australians believe our nation is worth defending”.

Updated at 20.48 CET

Ley to outline Coalition’s defence priorities

Krishani Dhanji

The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, will set out her priorities on defence preparedness and energy security in a speech to the Menzies Institute tonight.

After a media blitz spruiking the Coalition’s settled energy policy, which will dump net zero, and while her party sets its policy priorities on immigration, Ley will outline several defence capability gaps Australia should invest in.

Ley will say Australia should have an integrated air and missile defence system, the ability to build, deploy and resupply unmanned and autonomous weapons systems, and develop a greater sovereign capability for satellite connectivity.

We cannot shape our region and the wider world in our interests if we do not strengthen our defence force, hone our intelligence capabilities and have the tough conversations.

Fuel and energy security are among the most important parts of Australia’s preparedness in a conflict or crisis, Ley will say.

She will argue Australia is not prepared for a cyber-attack on the energy grid and that Australia has been “decreasing its energy sovereignty, not strengthening it”, which she will link to the Coalition’s energy policy to expanding domestic gas supply.

Updated at 20.47 CET

Volcano erupts in Java

Indonesia’s Mount Semeru, the highest peak on Java island, erupted yesterday, blanketing several villages with falling ash, prompting evacuations and leading authorities to raise the alert to the highest level, the Associated Press reports.

Mount Semeru in East Java province unleashed searing clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to 7km down its slopes several times from midday to dusk, while a thick column of hot clouds rose 2km into the air, Indonesia’s Geology Agency said.

The eruptions that unfolded throughout the day forced authorities to raise the volcano’s alert level twice, from the third-highest level to the highest, the agency said.

No casualties have been reported. More than 300 residents in the three villages most at risk in the district of Lumajang were evacuated to government shelters, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari.

Videos showed ash sweeping through valleys.

Local media reported that authorities are struggling to rescue about 178 people stranded on the 3,676m mountain at the Ranu Kumbolo monitoring post. The group includes 137 climbers, 15 porters, seven guides and six tourism officials, according to an official with the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, TNBTS.

“They are currently safe at Ranu Kumbolo monitoring post,” Endrip Wahyutama, a TNBTS spokesperson, said in video statement, adding that the post is located 4.5km from the crater on the northern slope of the mountain, which is not in the path of the hot cloud flow that was observed moving to south-southeast. Bad weather and rain forced them to spend the night there, he said.

Semeru has a history of eruptions, with the last major one in December 2021.

Updated at 20.50 CET

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will take the reins.

Tropical Cyclone Fina intensified to a category two storm last night, the Bureau of Meteorology said, and was expected to turn south on Thursday. The storm will bring wind gusts of up to 130km/h along with heavy rainfall and possible flash flooding along coastal areas between the Tiwi Islands and Milingimbi from Friday. Landfall is expected late Friday or early Saturday. A full update coming up.

There has been a big volcanic eruption in Indonesia, on the island of Java. We’ll bring you news of any impacts on flights.

Having spent most of her time on sorting out her energy policy and talking about immigration, Sussan Ley will outline in a speech to the Menzies Institute tonight how she would reform Australia’s defence preparedness and energy security. More coming up.

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