Australian news and politics recap: All the latest news and politics

May your commute home be easier than what Sydneysiders’ (read: mine) will be.

That wasn’t the only big news of the day, this arvo, our mates in WA have had to bunker down as Cyclone Zelia made landfall at Port Hedland this afternoon as a category four system - “the strongest... Australia has seen”. You can keep up to date with the latest here.

It was also a bumpy day for the prime minister, who faced heckles and jeers from offshore wind protesters at what was meant to be an innocuous presser on the NSW south coast.

Meanwhile, overseas, Donald Trump has spared Ausrtalia from the tariff stick after announcing plans to introduce reciprocal tariffs on countries that import US goods. He also promised to pump “many billions of dollars” in extra military sales to India to fight Islamic terrorism.

Phew, I’m off to wait for a train. Thanks for joining us on the live blog today, until next time!

READ THE LATEST EDITION OF THE NIGHTLY.

Bill Shorten started his first day at his new plum gig as the vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra with a word of warning about the future of the country.

“This country cannot dumb its way to greatness,” he told reporters.

The former Labor leader and minister is set to drive a “rejuvenation” of the decades-old Canberra institution and has said some jobs will have to go to fix “problems” in its halls.

While Mr Shorten said the process was “not straightforward”, he insisted he would not be working on turning UoC into a blnk canvas.

“The creators and the builders have given us a strong foundation over six decades,” he said. “Recent times have not been easy at the university or indeed throughout higher education.”

China’s defence ministry has accused Australia of deliberately “provoking” China in the South China Sea this week, and of “invading” and “breaking into” the homes of others.

The ministry spokesperson said Australia was spreading “false narratives”, Reuters reports.

Australia on Thursday raised concerns with China over what it said were “unsafe and unprofessional” actions by a Chinese fighter jet towards an Australian maritime patrol in the South China Sea earlier in the week, an account disputed by Beijing.

Get the details of the incident at the centre of the tension.

Check in with your Sydney commuter friends, we’ve been through it today (honestly, I’m tempted to camp in the office so I don’t have to waste away on a train platform).

Thanks to a massive union strike action, hundreds of train services had been cancelled or delayed throughout the day, crippling the network. By this afternoon, most train stations have seemingly given up on posting details of when the next service was due at platforms.

The rail union vowed to “f... the network up” with industrial action on Friday after negotiations in the relentless pay dispute with the NSW government broke down the evening prior.

Rail union members were told to “simpy not go to work”, and 350 workers refused to clock in, with more sick leave lodged today than during the Covid pandemic.

The situation got so dire that transport authorities warned parents of schoolchildren not to rely on trains to get home and to organise alternative pickups.

Shuttle buses are running and the Metro line is unaffected by the action, and a cap has been ordered on Uber surge pricing.

Police are reportedly still waiting to receive the raw footage of the viral video showing two Bankstown Hospital nurses making anti-Semitic threats during a conversation with an Israeli influencer.

Max Veifer shared the “extended version” of the viral webcam interaction - in which the nurses claimed they had and would “kill” Israeli patients - online, but police say they are waiting to receive the “full and unedited” version to continue investigations.

The update comes as one of the nurses, Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir was hospitalised on Thursday evening, following “reports of a concern for welfare”, NSW Police said.

It is understood, the Daily Telegraph reports, that Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh have not voluntarily attended a police station for a formal interview.

If the upcoming federal election goes the Coalition’s way, Angus Taylor will hold the key to one of the most powerful offices in the nation, and Australia’s purse strings with it.

The Nightly travelled to the shadow treasurer’s idyllic property in the NSW Southern Tablelands for a wide-ranging conversation, in which Mr Taylor revealed his economic vision and the values that would guide him in office.

He spoke nuclear power, shared his attitudes toward debt, the housing crisis, productivity challenges and immgiration.

Above all else, he promised the Coalition would always put Australia’s interests first on the world stage — even if it meant taking the risky step of standing up to US President Donald Trump.

READ THE FULL EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW HERE.

The scale of Zelia’s fury has been captured on camera by Port Hedland locals, with a number taking to TikTok to share just how stong those destructive winds are.

Category 5 cyclone Zelia has crossed the coast east of Port Hedland bringing torrential rain and destructive winds gusting up to 290km/h.

Zelia made landfall around noon local time - hours before previously forecast - near the DeGrey River mouth to the east of Port Hedland.

Follow for live updates

Leonard John Warwick was found guilty in 2020 of series of violent crimes carried out over a five year reign of terror in the 1980s.

CONVICTED:

• Murder: In June 1980, he shot dead Federal Court judge David Opas who had been presiding over Warwick’s family court case with his wife.
• Attempted murder: In March 1984 he bombed the Belrose home of Justice Richard Gee.
• Murder: In July 1984 he murdered Pearl Watson, the wife of judge Ray Watson in a bomb blast at their Greenwich home.
• Planted a bomb: In February 1985, Warwick installed a bomb under the hood of a car out the front of a home previously blonging to a lawyer Gary Watts.
• Murder: Warwick killed Graham Wykes and injured 13 others when he bombed the Casuala Jehovah’s Witness hall.

When he sentenced the man known as the family court bomber to three life sentences in 2020, NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Garling described him as “calculated, violent and hateful”.

Justice Garling said his crimes were “evil” and an “attack on the foundations of Australian democracy”.

“Between 1980 and 1985, the Family Court of Australia, its judges and a practitioner were the targets of a number of episodes of extreme violence, each of which were well publicised and many of which had tragic consequences,” reports at the time quoted him as saying.

“This was a distinct period of violent offending against judicial officers of the same registry of the same court in a way not seen before in any court in Australia, let alone concentrated in one registry of an Australian court.

“The accused had a tendency to commit acts of violence against people and institutions which acted in a way which was adverse to his access to his daughter.”