What we learned, Friday 16 February
We will wrap up the live blog here for the evening. Here’s the major points from today:
The Bureau of Meteorology has officially designated the low moving over parts of the Northern Territory and the Gulf of Carpentaria as Tropical Cyclone Lincoln. It is a category one, so a lower risk cyclone, but will still bring heavy rain and strong winds.
Australian Border Force confirmed an operation is under way in remote northern WA amid reports that over 20 people arrived in Beagle Bay by boat.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has called on the government to front up and explain the situation.
A Townsville woman died in flood waters yesterday afternoon, Queensland police confirmed. Her vehicle became submerged in flood waters at Duchess, south-east of Mount Isa, yesterday.
Seven schools across Sydney will have precautionary testing done amid the escalating asbestos crisis in NSW.
There are still 24,000 homes and businesses without power in parts of Victoria, with those who have no power for seven days or longer able to apply for payments from the Victorian and federal governments for close to $2,000 a week for homes and close to $3,000 for businesses.
Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce has denied he has a drinking problem – just that alcohol and prescription medication should not be mixed.
Until tomorrow, have a good evening. If you’re following all things Taylor Swift, we are running that live blog here.
Updated
Lidia Thorpe says government 'complicit in genocide' if it does not restore UNRWA funds
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has called on the Australian government to reinstate funding to a key UN agency “to keep people alive” in Gaza.
Australia was among more than 10 other countries to suspend funding to UNRWA after allegations from Israel that as many as 12 of its staff may have been involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks.
Australia’s freeze relates to $6m in top-up funding announced in mid-January, but $20m in core funding for the 2023-24 financial year has already been delivered. The funding suspensions by major donors including the US and the UK have prompted UNRWA to warn its operations may have to be curtailed by the end of February.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament House in Canberra today, Thorpe said the Australian government should “release the funds immediately”. She said:
It’s a humanitarian crisis. I don’t know how many times we have to inform the government – they can do more, and they should do more. Otherwise, they are complicit in the genocide that’s going on in Palestine.
South Africa has initiated proceedings at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel has engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – a claim that Israel has rejected as “false” and “outrageous”.
The ICJ has yet to decide on the substantive allegations, but in an interim ruling late last month found the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide were “plausible”.
It ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power to prevent” genocidal acts and to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.
Updated
