At least 15 people have been killed after a day of violent protests in Papua New Guinea. The country’s government is working to restore order by deploying more than 1,000 troops to Port Moresby should violence erupt again. Prime Minister James Marape has declared a two-week state of emergency. The unrest began two days ago after hundreds of police officers, soldiers, prison staff and public servants walked off the jobs. The move was in protest of a pay dispute.

Iran has seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The vessel has been ordered to return to an Iranian Port. State media in Iran claims the seizure is a retaliation against the US. In April 2023, the ship and its oil were confiscated by the US as part of sanctions against the Iranian regime. Armed men wearing masks boarded the vessel after it departed a port in Iraq.

Sky News contributor Kel Richards says it is “really distressing” how the word ‘genocide’ has been “cheapened” by accusations Israel has committed war crimes in its war on Hamas. The International Court of Justice is set to begin hearings later this week after South Africa filed a case against Israel. They have accused Israel of war crimes by violating the Genocide Convention in its war on Hamas. Crossbench Senator David Pocock has urged the Labor Party to ‘publicly support’ the international probe. “It really bothers me as a wordsmith the way the word genocide is being cheapened,” Mr Richards said. “The word was coined in 1943 by a bloke named Raphael Lemkin, who was a Jewish lawyer in Poland … in order to describe … what was happening to the Jewish people. “When you’re using genocide, you need to be able to point to the concentration camps and the gas ovens. “When you apply it to something which is not genocide, it cheapens the word, and you can’t use it when it really happens.”

The New York Times has released their top 52 places in the world to visit, with one Australian destination making it into the top 30. Tasmanian took out number 29 for best places to visit in 2024 for its picturesque nature experiences and thriving food and dining scene. According to the New York Times list, North America is the number one place to visit in 2024, followed by Paris, France. Number three: Yamaguchi in Japan for food and flowers. Number four: a train trip in New Zealand for the scenery.

Sky News contributor Kel Richards says the Australian republican movement is based on the “mistaken belief” that the country doesn’t have an Australian head of state because they “don’t like facts”. Writer and republican Thomas Keneally says Australia has limited itself to being a ‘pretend nation’ by retaining King Charles as its head of state. “He’s wrong,” Mr Richards said. “The whole republican movement is based on the mistaken belief that we don’t have an Australian head of state. “We do: the Governor General is the head of state, and he’s an Australian. “We discovered this for certain when the correspondence between Sir John Kerr and the Palace was released … they were letting him call the shots – he decided because he was the head of state. “Republicans don’t like facts.”

Sky News host James Macpherson says the government has been “fuelling inflation” and all the left do is “trash the culture” of Australia. “The government focussed on fighting inflation; they have been fuelling inflation,” Mr Macpherson said. “The RBA fought inflation by raising interest rates and then were demonised for their trouble by the government. “The Labor government has been fuelling inflation. “And as for fighting the culture wars, it is amazing … how the left, they trash the culture and then anyone who dares to say ‘well what are you doing?’ well they’re accused of … fighting culture wars.”

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Strategic Analysis Australia Director Michael Shoebridge says Foreign Minister Penny Wong should visit Kyiv following her upcoming visit to the Middle East. “She’s only three hours away from Kyiv, why doesn’t she visit the other second war zone and see for herself what a difference Australian military supplies can make to the Ukrainians,” Mr Shoebridge told Sky News host Caleb Bond. Mr Shoebridge’s comments come as the Foreign minister is set to travel to both Israel and the West Bank next week. The Foreign Minister will also be visiting parts of the West Bank as she continues exploring the option of a two-sided ceasefire. Ms Wong will also be backing a two-state solution to the decades of conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Sky News host Andrew Bolt says complaints of “racism” at the ABC is a case of the “revolution eating its own”. Antionette Lattouf, a Lebanese-Australian who was dumped as a fill-in radio host over Christmas for her anti-Israel posts on social media, alleges she was sacked because of her ethnicity. ‘This is why it is disheartening to not only witness the horrendous treatment of people of colour by the ABC over the years, but now to personally — and so publicly — feel its wrath,’ she said. “The ABC – which campaigns so hard on race issues, sees racists everywhere – is itself racist. Our national broadcaster is shockingly racist if their own journalists and presenters are to be believed,” Mr Bolt said. “I’ve never heard so many staff complaints at other organisations, or is the ABC being gamed? “This is a case of the revolution eating its own. “There have been so many complaints from staff about ABC racism that the ABC, in 2022, publicly apologised for this racism in its newsroom.”

There seems to be “no sense of national unity” in Papua New Guinea, according to Sky News host Andrew Bolt. The Australian High Commission has stepped up security measures after violent riots and looting broke out in Port Moresby. “No sense of national unity there,” Mr Bolt said. “Riots, arson, shooting, murders, after police and other public servants found themselves underpaid thanks to a computer glitch. “Police downed tools which meant mass looting of shops and warehouses including Chinese owned ones – at least two Chinese were injured.”

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says destroying Australia Day for personal recognition and reasons does not create a stronger country, it “destroys the nation we have”. “It is part of that cultural clique … we have got to something that maybe makes us feel better about the fortunate circumstances we were born to,” Mr Joyce told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. “And we do it by trashing Australia, by trashing Australia Day. “People are aware of it, the more they try to trash Australia Day, the more the people will say ‘no you’re not’ and they will stand up for it and they will absolutely make sure that people see their patriotism towards our nation. “Because that is the glue that holds us together, your own little individual causes where you decide that the way you’re going to be recognised is to smash something up, does not create a stronger nation, it destroys the nation we have.”

Strategic Analysis Australia Director Michael Shoebridge says the Iran-backed Houthi rebels are banking on regional escalation. “Words are not deterring the Houthis, that statement that Australia joined from 20 nations telling the Houthis horrible things would happen if they kept doing what they were doing, has done nothing,” he told Sky News host Caleb Bond. “The Houthi have actually escalated their attacks. “Yes, there’s the prospect of regional escalation, but that’s what the Houthis are banking on. “They're saying if you try and stop us attacking international shipping then you might risk a wider war so don’t do it. “But unfortunately that international trade route through the Red Sea is too important to be held hostage to the Houthi.”

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has slammed Peter Dutton’s "priorities" after the Opposition Leader's call for a boycott of Woolworths over its axing of Australia Day merchandise. “I think it really shows the kind of priorities of Peter Dutton,” Mr Watt said during a media conference on Thursday. “Rather than thinking about the things that are priorities for Australians, like taking pressure off cost of living while not adding to inflation, he’s out there fighting yet another culture war, talking about what kind of products that supermarkets sell. “I don’t think that’s the kind of priority that most Australians have right now. “They’re thinking about how they can pay their supermarket bills rather than what kind of thongs they can buy in a supermarket.”

Nationals MP Sam Birrell says he is a “huge critic” of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan rollout and the Victorian floods are a “perverse impact” of the plan. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised financial support for flood-affected communities across Victoria at a press conference in Melbourne yesterday. “I’ve been a huge critic of the way the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been rolled out – this is just another one of those perverse impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” Mr Birrell told Sky News Australia. “The Murray-Darling Basin Plan involves taking a lot of water away from irrigation to be held by the Commonwealth … to be used when and if people decide they want to use it for environmental works. “Storage like Eildon was built to hold irrigation water … if that’s sitting there waiting for environmental use … it sits there in Eildon, and then when we get a rain event like this, potentially that can cause Eildon to flood and spill. “I just think we’ve got to have a really good look at how these storages are managed into the future and whether … engineering solutions can be put together to make sure we can create what’s called a bit of air space so that those storages aren’t full so that if we do get a rain event like this, the water’s got somewhere to go and not potentially towards a place like Rochester.”

Nationals MP Sam Birrell says the government need to have “more broad thinking” about how to mitigate against floods in Victoria because of the “real challenge” they pose to residents in flood-affected towns. The Prime Minister has promised financial support for flood-affected communities across Victoria. Anthony Albanese made the announcement in Melbourne on Wednesday after visiting other storm-affected regions on the Gold Coast and Far North Queensland. “I think, as government and policymakers, we need to look at what ways of mitigating against these flood events for townships, particularly like Rochester,” Mr Birrell told Sky News Australia. “And things that we've probably previously considered you wouldn’t do for a one-in-100-year flooding event. “Well, these things are happening more often now, so we really got to have a bit more broad thinking about what we could do … to mitigate against these flood events.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has taken aim at X – formerly known as Twitter – saying Australians are at a higher risk of online hate since Elon Musk took over. Cyber safety expert and former police officer Susan McLean says online safety is a “huge issue”. “And for any school, anywhere in the world for that matter, it is often the number one non-academic issue that a school has to deal with on any given day,” she told Sky News Australia. “We need to hold social media platforms to account – if they’re not doing well enough, we need to call them out. “But we also, on the other hand, need to acknowledge and support them when they make good choices.”

Australian Antarctic Division Senior Researcher Dana Bergstrom has revealed that a heatwave in Antarctica in 2022 was a result of a joining up of tropical cyclones. In 2022, Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat event which broke records when the region recorded a new all-time high temperature of minus 9.4 degrees on March 18 near Concordia Station. “What we found was that heat poured in from the tropics into the Indian Ocean area,” Ms Bergstrom told Sky News Australia. “During the February – March time, there were 12 tropical storms, and five of them turned into tropical cyclones. “Few of them joined together and then got picked up by a jet stream and took this hot, warm, moist air from the tropics ... all the way to Antarctica.”

Broadcaster and wordsmith Kel Richards says people “don’t know” what actual wind turbines are like. Tasmanian windfarms recently got approval to run all year long, prompting outcry from communities of the areas the farms have been built on. “The people who live in the inner suburbs, who vote teal, they have no idea what’s going on, because they don’t know what these wind turbines are like,” he told Sky News host James Macpherson. “They’ve taken the occasional trip in the country, and they’ve seen one of those really nice old fashioned southern cross windmills – you know, the nice little ones, that have been there for 80-90 years, they’re quite quaint. “But these things are nothing like that, these are humongous – one blade is the length of a semitrailer, 260 feet, 80 meters, these things are absolutely massive.”

It's been revealed children as young as ten are reaching out to Victoria's Quitline to manage vaping addictions. It has prompted the launch of a new educational program alerting children about the dangers of vaping. The program released on Thursday will target Victorian schoolkids from years seven to ten. VicHealth says around 30 per cent of teenagers have used e-cigarettes but only half knew the product would be addictive and harmful. The Cancer Council says the long-term health consequences of vaping are still unknown.

At least one person is dead following a four vehicle crash in Melbourne, a motorcyclist has died in a peak hour crash in Brisbane, the TV industry saddened by the death of veteran cameraman Nick Beaney, the United Sates urges Australia to adopt nuclear energy, airlines and hotels accused of price gouging ahead of Taylor Swift's Australia tour, the U.S. will increase support for Ecuador amid ongoing gang violence, and Texas police arrest a third person involved in pregnant teen's murder. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.