Judge says feuding whānau had 85-year-old’s best interests at heart but couldn’t agree.

A 29-year-old man was arrested in New South Wales' north after a woman was found dead.

Police were called to a unit on Poinciana Street, Mullumbimby, at around 11.55pm following reports of a domestic dispute.

Upon arrival, police found a deceased woman in her 20s who has yet to be identified.

The 29-year-old was arrested at the scene and was taken to Byron Bay Police Station.

Police have established a crime scene, and investigations are ongoing.

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President Donald Trump said Friday the U.S. military has carried out its third fatal strike against an alleged drug smuggling vessel this month.

Trump in a social media posting said the strike killed three and was carried out against a vessel "affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organisation conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility."

He did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike.

READ MORE: Estonia says three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace

The Pentagon deferred questions about the strike to the White House, which did not respond to a request for clarity about the origins of the vessel. 

"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans," Trump said in the post. 

Trump also posted a video of the latest strike that shows a vessel speeding through waters before it appears to be struck by a pair of missiles from overhead and sink in a fiery explosion. 

"It was at this moment, the narcoterrorists knew they screwed up," White House communications director Steven Cheung said on X in a posting with the video. 

Trump on Monday announced the US military had carried out a strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela. That strike also killed three on board. 

That followed a September 2 military strike on what the Trump administration said was a drug-carrying speedboat that killed 11. 

Trump claimed the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, which was listed by the US as foreign terrorist organisation earlier this year. 

The Trump administration has justified the military action as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But several politicians, Democrats and some Republicans, as well as human rights groups have questioned the legality of Trump's action. 

They view it as a potential overreach of executive authority in part because the military was used for law enforcement purposes. 

The Trump administration has yet to explain how the military assessed the boat's cargo and determined the passengers' alleged gang affiliation before the attacks on the vessels. 

National security officials told members of Congress that the first boat taken out was fired on multiple times after it had changed course and appeared headed back to shore. 

The strikes follow a buildup of US maritime forces in the Caribbean. It marks a dramatic shift in how the US is willing to combat drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. 

In Venezuela, some are speculating whether the strikes are part of a plan to try to topple President Nicolás Maduro, a notion that the Venezuelan leader has echoed. 

Maduro claimed after the first strike that a US video released by Trump was created with artificial intelligence and that a boat of that size cannot venture into the high seas. 

But earlier this week Maduro lashed out at the US, accusing the Trump administration of using drug trafficking accusations as an excuse for a military operation whose intentions are "to intimidate and seek regime change" in the South American country.

READ MORE: Trump pushing to retake Afghan air base from Taliban

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Commonwealth Bank customers were left unable to access services as planned maintenance took longer than expected this morning.

The bank put out a statement at 8.30am apologising for the delay the scheduled maintenance was taking, stating that multiple services were affected by the outage.

While customers were still able to use debit cards, lower amounts applied to some purchases and withdrawals.

READ MORE: Pilot's body recovered from plane crash wreckage in NSW national park

Some CommBank app features were also limited, including payments and transfers.

Commbank put out a statement at 10.25am stating that all banking services are now available, apologising for the disruption it caused to customers.

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Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has denounced Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr's threats to pull ABC's broadcast licence as "unbelievably dangerous" and compared some of his rhetoric to "mafioso" tactics.

In an episode of his podcast, "Verdict with Ted Cruz," released on Friday, the Texas Republican said he was "thrilled" Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air by ABC over his comments about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

But he said he strongly disagreed with the government policing speech, asserting it could come back to bite conservatives when Democrats retake power.

READ MORE: Judge tosses Trump's $22B defamation lawsuit

"I hate what Jimmy Kimmel said. I am thrilled that he was fired," Cruz said.

"But let me tell you: If the government gets in the business of saying, 'We don't like what you, the media, have said. We're going to ban you from the airwaves if you don't say what we like,' that will end up bad for conservatives."

Though Carr's comments have drawn widespread condemnation on the left, Cruz's remarks represent one of the strongest denunciations of the threats against broadcasters by an elected conservative.

Cruz also chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which has broad authority over the FCC.

"Going down this road, there will come a time when a Democrat wins again – wins the White House … they will silence us. They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous," Cruz said.

Asked later by reporters on Capitol Hill if the Commerce Committee will hold hearings into the matter or investigate Carr if he continues in the same vein, Cruz left the door open to the possibility.

"There's no doubt the Commerce Committee has oversight, authority and responsibility over the FCC, and when the Democrats had the majority, they did not engage in oversight … We will do our job and engage in oversight."

READ MORE: Estonia says three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace

President Donald Trump has also vaguely threatened to pull networks' licences if they air overwhelmingly negative coverage of him, though Cruz did not rebut the president's remarks directly on the podcast.

Trump offered praise for Carr when pressed on the scathing remarks from the Texas Republican. "I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that," he said.

The president also continued to lament what he described as "dishonesty" from network broadcasts that are critical of him.

Cruz played recent remarks Carr made on far-right podcaster Benny Johnson's podcast, in which the FCC chairman threatened to take action against broadcasters who don't "find ways to change conduct" the government considers disagreeable.

"I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said. "These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or you know, there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead." ABC pulled Kimmel's show off the air indefinitely the day after Carr made those comments.

READ MORE: Late-night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension

Responding to Carr's comments, Cruz said: "No, no, no, no, no."

"Look, look, I like Brendan Carr," the senator said. "He's a good guy. He's the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him. But what he said there is dangerous as hell."

"He says, 'We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.' And I got to say, that's right out of 'Goodfellas.' That's right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, 'nice bar you have here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it.'"

Cruz later added: "I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, 'We're going to decide what speech we like and what we don't, and we're going to threaten to take you off air if we don't like what you're saying.'"

"And it might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel," the senator said. "But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it."

READ MORE: Trump pushing to retake Afghan air base from Taliban

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A provisional driver was clocked doing 196 km/h in a 100 km/h zone in Melbourne's east overnight, police said.

At around 3am, Nunawading Highway Patrol officers intercepted the 18-year-old driving a high-powered vehicle doing almost double the speed limit on the Monash Freeway in Glen Waverly.

It's expected the Berwick man will be charged for exceeding the speed limit, speeding dangerously, driving a prohibited vehicle, and other traffic violations.

The Volkswagen Golf R was impounded for a month at $1050.

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A Florida federal judge on Friday tossed out a $22.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against The New York Times.

US District Judge Steven Merryday ruled that Trump's 85-page lawsuit was overly long and full of "tedious and burdensome" language that had no bearing on the legal case. The judge gave Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint that should not exceed 40 pages.

"A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally," Merryday wrote in a four-page order. "This action will begin, will continue, and will end in accord with the rules of procedure and in a professional and dignified manner."

READ MORE: Estonia says three Russian fighter jets entered its airspace

Trump's legal team plans to continue the lawsuit "in accordance with the judge's direction on logistics," spokesman Aaron Harison said.

The lawsuit named four Times journalists and cited a book and three articles published within a two-month period before the last election.

The Times had said it was meritless and an attempt to discourage independent reporting. "We welcome the judge's quick ruling, which recognised that the complaint was a political document rather than a serious legal filing," spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said Friday.

Merryday noted that the lawsuit did not get to the first defamation count until page 80. The lawsuit delves into Trump's work on The Apprentice TV show and an "extensive list" of Trump's other media appearances.

"As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary," wrote Merryday, an appointment of former President George H.W. Bush. "Although lawyers receive a modicum of expressive latitude in pleading the claim of a client, the complaint in this action extends far beyond the outer bound of that latitude."

The lawsuit named a book and an article written by Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig that focuses on Trump's finances and his pre-presidency role in "The Apprentice." Trump said in the lawsuit that they "maliciously peddled the fact-free narrative" that television producer Mark Burnett turned Trump into a celebrity — "even though at and prior to the time of publications defendants knew that President Trump was already a mega-celebrity and an enormous success in business."

READ MORE: Late-night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension

The lawsuit also attacked claims the reporters made about Trump's early business dealings and his father, Fred.

Trump also cited an article by Peter Baker last October 20 headlined "For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgement." He also sued Michael S. Schmidt for a piece two days later featuring an interview with Trump's first-term chief of staff, John Kelly, headlined "As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator."

Trump has also sued ABC News and CBS News' 60 Minutes, both of which were settled out of court by the news organisations' parent companies. Trump also sued The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch in July after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

READ MORE: Trump pushing to retake Afghan air base from Taliban

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Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said. It happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over.

Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Russia violated Estonian airspace four times this year "but today's incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen."

Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur also said the government had decided "to start consultations among the allies" under NATO's article four, he wrote on X, after Russian jets "violated our airspace yet again."

READ MORE: Trump and Starmer sign a tech deal

The North Atlantic Council, NATO's principal political decision-making body, is due to convene early next week to discuss the incident in more detail, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Friday.

Article four, the shortest of the NATO treaty's 14 articles, states that: "The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened."

President Donald Trump told reporters he will soon be briefed by aides on the reported incursion. "I don't love it," he said, adding, "I don't like when that happens. It could be big trouble, but I'll let you know later."

Russian officials did not immediately comment.

European governments rattled

Russia's violation of Poland's airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia's all-out invasion in February 2022. Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory.

The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as U.S.-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Friday's incursion "an extremely dangerous provocation" that "further escalates tensions in the region."

"On our side, we see that we must show no weakness because weakness is something that invites Russia to do more," she said. "They are increasingly more dangerous — not only to Ukraine, but also to all the countries around Russia."

Estonia, along with fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia and neighbouring Poland, are staunch supporters of Ukraine.

Italian F-35 fighter jets respond to Russian incursion

The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement.

The aircraft did not have flight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic services.

Italian Air Force F-35 fighter jets, currently deployed as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, responded to the incident, according to the statement.

In a post on social media, Hart described the incident as "another example of reckless Russian behaviour and NATO's ability to respond."

NATO fighter jets scramble hundreds of times most years to intercept aircraft, many of them Russian warplanes in northwest Europe flying too close to the airspace of its member countries, but it's rarer for planes to cross the boundary.

READ MORE: ABC denied spot at Trump's UK press conference

Dozens of NATO jets are on round-the-clock alert across Europe to respond to incidents such as unannounced military flights or civilian planes losing communication with air traffic controllers.

Separately, Maj. Taavi Karotamm, spokesperson for the Estonian Defence Forces, told The Associated Press the Russian planes flew parallel to the Estonian border from east to west and did not head toward the capital, Tallinn.

Karotamm said the reason for the border violation is unknown, but added that it may have been to "shift the focus of NATO and its members on to defending itself, rather than bolstering Ukrainian defence."

"Russia's increasingly extensive testing of boundaries and growing aggressiveness must be met with a swift increase in political and economic pressure," Tsakhna, the foreign minister, said.

The Russian charge d'affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said.

British spy chief says 'no evidence' Putin wants peace

Earlier Friday, the head of Britain's foreign intelligence agency said there is "absolutely no evidence" that Russia's President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 as it is more commonly known, said Putin was "stringing us along."

"He seeks to impose his imperial will by all means at his disposal. But he cannot succeed," Moore said. "Bluntly, Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. He thought he was going to win an easy victory. But he — and many others — underestimated the Ukrainians."

The war has continued unabated in the three years since Russia invaded its neighbour. Ukraine has accepted proposals for a ceasefire and a summit meeting, but Moscow has demurred.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday during a state visit to the United Kingdom that Putin "has really let me down" in peace efforts.

Putin is 'mortgaging the future' of Russia

Moore was speaking at the British consulate in Istanbul after five years as head of MI6. He leaves the post at the end of September. The agency will then get its first female chief.

Moore said the invasion had strengthened Ukrainian national identity and accelerated its westward trajectory, as well as pushing Sweden and Finland to join NATO.

"Putin has sought to convince the world that Russian victory is inevitable. But he lies. He lies to the world. He lies to his people. Perhaps he even lies to himself," Moore told a news conference.

He said that Putin was "mortgaging his country's future for his own personal legacy and a distorted version of history" and the war was "accelerating this decline."

Analysts say Putin believes he can outlast the political commitment of Ukraine's Western partners and win a protracted war of attrition by wearing down Ukraine's smaller army with sheer weight of numbers.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is racing to expand its defence cooperation with other countries and secure billions of dollars of investment in its domestic weapons industry.

MI6 unveils dark web portal

The spy chief was speaking as MI6 unveiled a dark web portal to allow potential intelligence providers to contact the service. Dubbed "Silent Courier," the secure messaging platform aims to recruit new spies for the UK, including in Russia.

"To those men and women in Russia who have truths to share and the courage to share them, I invite you to contact MI6," Moore said.

Not just Russians but "anyone, anywhere in the world" would be able to use the portal to offer sensitive information on terrorism or "hostile intelligence activity," he said.

READ MORE: Tsunami warnings after huge Russian quake

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Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon opened their late-night shows on Thursday using a mix of humour and solidarity with suspended ABC host Jimmy Kimmel.

Stewart opted for satire to critique ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Colbert took a more serious approach, calling his suspension "blatant censorship".

READ MORE: Jimmy Kimmel spotted at lawyer's office as Trump calls for more cancellations

Fallon praised Kimmel and vowed to keep doing his show as usual. Then an announcer spoke over him and replaced most of his critiques about US President Donald Trump with flattery.

Their guests the day after Kimmel's suspension — which also came two months after CBS said it would cancel Colbert's show — varied widely.

Fallon's guests were actor Jude Law, journalist Tom Llamas and actor and singer Jonathan Groff — none of whom addressed Kimmel's situation.

Stewart and Colbert interviewed guests who could address censorship concerns raised by Kimmel's suspension. Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa spoke to Stewart.

When Stewart asked Ressa, the author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator, tips on coping with the current moment, Ressa recounted how she and her colleagues at the news site Rappler "just kept going" when she was faced with 11 arrest warrants in one year under Philippine then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

"We just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other," Ressa said.

Stewart makes special appearance to skewer Kimmel suspension

Stewart's show opened with a voice-over promising adherence to the party line.

"We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show," it said.

He lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of large cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight their crime.

"Coming to you tonight from the real (expletive), the crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one's ever seen before. Someone's National Guard should invade this place, am I right?" Stewart said.

The Daily Show set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.

Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an "awww" he whispered: "What are you doing? Shut up. You're going to (expletive) blow this for us."

He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump's visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president "our great father".

"Gaze upon him. With a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him," he said.

Stewart normally hosts only on Mondays. The Emmy winner helmed The Daily Show from 1999 through 2015, delivering sharp, satirical takes on politics and current events and interviews with newsmakers. He returned to host once a week during the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election.

Fallon opened his Tonight Show monologue addressing Kimmel's suspension.

"To be honest with you all, I don't know what's going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he's a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back."

Swift suspension after remarks on Kirk's assassination

Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to Kirk's killing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday and Tuesday nights, including that "many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk."

ABC suspended Kimmel's show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.

Kimmel has not commented. His supporters say Carr misread what the comic said and that nowhere did he specifically suggest that Tyler Robinson — the man Utah authorities allege fatally shot Kirk — was conservative.

In July, CBS said it would cancel The Late Show With Stephen Colbert next May. The network said it shut down the decades-old TV institution for financial reasons.

But the announcement came three days after Colbert criticised the settlement between President Donald Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a 60 Minutes story.

The Late Show hosts past and present address suspension

Colbert started his monologue on Thursday with the animated song Be Our Guest from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, but replaced the lyrics with "Shut your trap. Shut your trap."

He later addressed Kimmel directly, saying that he stands with him and his staff.

"If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive," he said.

He also responded to remarks Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming "they determine falls short of community values."

"Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech," Colbert said to loud applause from his audience.

When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel's suspension, he said: "What we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word."

David Letterman, Colbert's predecessor on The Late Show, lamented the networks' moves.

"I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It's managed media," Letterman said during an appearance on Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York.

"It's no good. It's silly. It's ridiculous."

He added that people shouldn't be fired just because they don't "suck up" to what Letterman called "an authoritarian" president.

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Three people died during an Optus triple zero failure across South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory that was the result of a network update issue.

Optus chief executive Stephen Rue said a technical failure affected about 600 triple zero calls on the Optus network.

Rue said welfare checks were then conducted at all affected households after the issue was fixed.

READ MORE: Pilot's body recovered from plane crash wreckage in NSW national park

From those welfare checks it was established that three of the calls came from households where people passed away.

Two of the deaths took place in SA and another in WA.

"Our investigation is ongoing but at this stage I can confirm that approximately 600 customers were potentially impacted, of which a portion of calls did not go through," he said.

He apologised to the families of those who passed away.

"I am so sorry for your loss What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down. You have my assurance that we are conducting a thorough investigation.

"This should not have happened."

It's not the first time Optus has had a major outage.

Optus was last year ordered to pay more than $12 million for breaches of emergency call rules in November 2023 following an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The ACMA found Optus failed to provide access to the emergency call service for 2145 people during the course of the 14-hour outage on November 8, 2023.

It said Optus then failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on people who had tried to make an emergency call during the outage.

At the time the fine was issued, ACMA Chair Nerida O'Loughlin said significant penalty reflected the critical nature of the breaches.

"Triple zero availability is the most fundamental service telcos must provide to the public. When an emergency call fails to connect there can be devastating consequences for public health and safety," she said.