Scroll down for the latest news and updates.
One Nation senator claimed coronavirus deaths ‘staged’
Pauline Hanson is facing another political headache after video surfaced of One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts claiming deaths were “staged” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes as the party recorded a dip in popularity according to a major national poll, with Senator Hanson facing criticism over a recent trip to Europe.
In a video interview published in 2025 and first reported by the Nine newspapers, Senator Roberts questions the extent of deaths during the early days of the pandemic.
“Major news broadcasters had these videos of people dying in their droves in makeshift morgues in the streets of New York, the streets of Beijing, the streets of Italy,” Senator Roberts told a forum hosted by podcaster Sam Hope.
“We thought it is pretty serious from what we’ve seen. We didn’t realise until fairly recently that those were all staged. They’re bullshit.”
Senator Roberts also questioned the severity of the illness, saying if you don’t take into account the most vulnerable such as the elderly and immunocompromised, the severity must be low.
“The chief medical officer who was involved in staging a lot of the lies we were told by the bureaucracy ... the chief medical officer’s graphs showed low to moderate severity,” he said.
“We were conned.”
Government refuses to help Australian ISIS-linked doctor return home
The Albanese Government has ruled out helping Australian doctor and former Islamic State recruit Tareq Kamleh return to Australia after reports he is being held in an Iraqi prison.
Speaking to Channel Nine, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government would not assist Australians who chose to join foreign terrorist organisations, while acknowledging there were constitutional limits on preventing citizens from returning home.
“We’ve made clear for some time now that we won’t be providing any assistance as a government to anyone whose made the absolutely awful decision to join a foreign terrorist organisation,” Mr Watt said.
Asked whether Kamleh would ultimately be allowed back into Australia, he replied, “That remains to be seen. We won’t be providing assistance, just as we haven’t provided assistance to others to come back.”
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Ted O’Brien said the government needed to outline what steps it would take to prevent former Islamic State fighters from returning.
“The government can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to help them’. What are you actually going to proactively do to protect the Australian people?” he said.
US turns back ships as Iran blockade ramps up
US forces have turned back eight commercial vessels and disabled another since reimposing a blockade on Iran on July 21, according to US Central Command.
In a post on X, CentCom said, “Every operational success in the Middle East begins and ends with service members focused on their missions, including the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of July 21, U.S. forces have redirected 8 commercial vessels and disabled 1 to fully enforce the blockade.”
The military did not identify the ships involved or provide further details about the incidents. During the initial blockade between April and June, US forces said they had diverted more than 100 vessels travelling to or from Iranian ports.
US reveals secret Strait of Hormuz mission as Iran targets ships
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says the military has been quietly escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz under a covert operation that has helped move up to 500 million barrels of oil despite ongoing threats from Iran.
Speaking before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Mr Hegseth said US forces had “been in control of moving traffic” through the strategic waterway “for quite some time” as part of Project Freedom.
“We pushed almost, I believe, between 400 and 500 million barrels of oil under the nose of Iran over the course of Project Freedom,” Mr Hegseth said.
However, he acknowledged Iran continued to target commercial vessels with missile and drone attacks, adding: “Iran’s not charging tolls, and they’re shooting at ships right now.”
A Red Sea blockade threatens a new front in US-Iran war
Tehran and Washington are doubling down on their standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, as a Red Sea blockade risks shutting another key shipping route amid an expanding war.
Days of US strikes have not loosened Tehran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for the world’s oil supply, while tit-for-tat strikes have taken the place of a collapsed ceasefire.
A tanker came under attack in the strait early Tuesday, near Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the ship on a lifeboat, the British navy’s maritime trade operations centre said. Iran said fires broke out on two tankers that passed through an unauthorised route.
“As long as American hostilities in the region continue, the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in remarks carried by the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency.
Threatening to widen the conflict roiling the Middle East, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen announced Monday a blockade on Saudi Arabia’s shipments through the Red Sea’s Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Trump weighs joint military campaign with Israel
US President Donald Trump is weighing a joint military campaign with Israel to force Iran into a ceasefire, according to Axios, as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate.
The report says Mr Trump is also considering a 10-day ceasefire proposal backed by regional mediators including Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but currently favours military action.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Trump said, “They want to desperately meet, and until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest.”
He added Iran hadn’t “seen anything yet. We have been nice.”
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails