What we learned: Thursday, 9 January
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Thanks for reading, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow with all the latest news.
For now, here were the major developments of the day:
Rescued hiker Hadi Nazari has thanked emergency services for their “tireless work” searching the Snowy Mountains for 13 days to locate him, in his first statement since his rescue.
The family of a pilot killed in a seaplane crash near Rottnest Island have paid tribute to a “dear friend, brother, son and partner” in a fundraising post. The organiser of the GoFundMe wrote the loss of James Sai Meng Wong was “sudden, unexpected and devastating”.
Anthony Albanese has announced $200m of funding for housing and community infrastructure across regional Western Australia during a visit to the state. He’s also announced a $50m initiative to encourage farmers and freight companies to buy up electric vehicles as part of Labor’s plans to decarbonise the economy.
A father is in critical condition with the first diagnosed case of Japanese encephalitis in Australia since 2022.
And the president of Carlton AFL club and ex-head of consulting firm PwC has claimed his X account was hacked and that he was not responsible for posting a picture of a naked man.
Updated
A signalling failure has caused extensive delays across the Sydney trains work, hitting services running from Central to western parts of the city.
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the delays lasted around 20 minutes from 4.30pm this afternoon, with services now resuming as normal following urgent repairs.
They affected the Blue Mountains, Cumberland and Western lines.
A statement to commuters at Central station advised people to delay non-essential travel and use alternative transport.
Updated
