Gold Coast high school students hospitalised after eating mushroom gummies – as it happened

Paramedics attended to two boys from Palm Beach Currumbin state high school on Wednesday. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

9.00am BST

What we learned, Wednesday 2 October

And with that, we are going to close the blog. Before we go let’s recap the big headlines:

• Retailers plead for RBA not to hike rates

• Could supermarket superprofits be fuelling Australia’s inflation?

• 15,000 Australians still in Lebanon, minister says

• Media coverage ‘creating more and more fear’ on youth crime, children’s commissioner says

• Human bone found at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach

• Murray Watt: ‘Australia unreservedly condemns Iran’s actions’

• Watt: ‘We don’t think it’s acceptable for anyone to celebrate the October 7 terrorist attack’

• Sanctions slapped on three Russian cyber criminals

• Albanese condemns Iranian missile attack on Israel

• Albanese declines to call Middle East conflict a ‘war’

• Queensland premier promises publicly owned ‘people’s’ energy provider

• Prime minister says 7 October ‘not the time for demonstrations to occur’

• Woman arrested in Sydney amid investigations into alleged display of prohibited symbols at protest

• Victoria police say they have no powers to halt pro-Palestine rally

• NRMA report says one of biggest barriers to EV adoption in Australia is ‘image problem’

• Adam Bandt on Middle East: ‘Labor must do more than simply call for a ceasefire’

• Planter boxes listed as safety concern ahead of pro-Palestine rally on Sunday

• NSW Friends of Palestine write to police minister seeking compromise ahead of rallies

• NSW Health warns of high-dose MDMA tablets circulating state

• LNP to recommend preferencing One Nation in key seat

• ABC news director calls out racial abuse of Tony Armstrong

Thank you for spending your day with us. We’ll be back tomorrow to do it all again.

Updated at 9.17am BST

8.59am BST

Victoria University estimates international student cap will cost it over $16m in one year

Victoria University (VU) estimates a loss of $16.7m in a single year as a result of the federal government’s proposed international student cap, a new analysis conducted by the university reveals.

Under the caps, VU will have its numbers capped at 11% below its 2023 intake level, among 15 universities that would see international student numbers decrease.

Its vice-chancellor, professor Adam Shoemaker, said it was “not a pretty picture”.

Every dollar counts for a public-purpose institution like ours. This proposal will hinder VU’s ability to invest and grow our equity and excellence agenda, which directly contradicts the key intent of the federal government’s Universities Accord.”

Over a third of VU students are from equity backgrounds, such as First Nations students, students with a disability and students from disadvantaged backgrounds, while almost half are first in family to go to university.

Speaking at a Senate inquiry into the bill on Wednesday, the deputy Greens leader and spokesperson for higher education, Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor and Liberal were in a “race to the bottom” on education policy, labelling the proposed cap “racist dog whistling”.

Updated at 9.15am BST