Australia news as it happened:Colleges told to stop recruiting fake overseas students;RBA holds rates steady

Thanks so much for reading the live blog today. This is where we will conclude today’s coverage.

Here’s a look back at today’s top stories.

The blog will be back first thing tomorrow.

Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek,whose electorate encompasses Alexandria,has taken to social media to call the latest Sydney stabbing “horrific” and re-iterated the government’s stance that domestic violence is a national crisis.

A woman wasallegedly stabbed in the neck and upper body by a former partner in a gym car park in Sydney’s inner south today. The woman suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Police have identified a suspect,but the 40-year-old man is yet to be arrested or charged.

It’s the latest in a string of both stabbings in Sydney and alleged domestic violence incidences in NSW and Australia.

Sydney’s knife laws arecurrently under scrutiny after the Bondi Junction stabbings and the Wakeley church stabbing,both in April. Meanwhile,the alleged murder of Molly Ticehurst by a former partner,also in April,sparked anational outcry to put an end to domestic violence.

Tension was high at Monash University in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton today,seven days after students set up camp on the campus lawns in solidarity with pro-Palestine activists at universities around the world.

More than 100 people met at midday for what was meant to be a rally and march through the campus.

Organisers called off the march after clashes with a group of counter-demonstrators who showed up supporting Jewish students and Israel.

Chants of:“We are all Palestinians”,“Free,free Palestine” and “Israel out of Palestine,Israel out of West Bank” were interrupted when Jewish students broke a camp barricade,made up of security guards and pro-Palestinian protesters.

One Jewish student’s shirt was ripped during an ensuing scuffle and another had their flag snatched when they pushed their way through the crowd.

Police watched from a distance as security guards worked to keep the opposing crowds separated. The taunts and cheers grew louder with the arrival of three adult activists,who marched onto the campus waving a large Palestine flag.

Minutes later,about 20 counter-demonstrators linked arms and sang the Israeli national anthem,as their fellow students shouted their demands for the university from a stage metres away.

“Disclose,divest:we will not stop,we will not rest!”

“You wouldn’t expect us to stay silent if this was the Vietnam War!” the protesters called from the stage.

Despite the trading of insults,no arrests were made and there were no interjections from university staff.

NSW Police held a press conference to provide an update on the stabbing of a woman outside a gym in Sydney’s inner south.

Watch the press conference here:

China and Australia have escalated the blame game over a dangerous aerial encounter above the Yellow Sea,with China’s Defence Ministry claiming the Australian military acted provocatively by conducting short-range reconnaissance of its military assets.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood by Australia’s explanation of the incident,accusing Beijing of offering a contradictory rationale for the interception,in which a Chinese fighter jet set off flares near an Australian navy helicopter on Saturday night,forcing the helicopter pilot to take evasive action.

Read the full story here.

As Australia transitions to net-zero,a continental map of the nation’s rare earth deposits will help attract clean energy investment as a top priority in the move away from fossil fuels.

In 2022,68 per cent of total electricity generation came from fossil fuels,with 47 per cent produced from burning coal.

But to reach its climate goals,the federal government must reduce greenhouse emissions to 43 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade before completely negating them by 2050.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a range of commitments to critical minerals,clean energy and renewables manufacturing.

But today he revealed a landmark $566 million,10-year plan to deliver a subterranean “soil and seabed” map to pinpoint where critical materials needed for clean energy lie.

The money will be allocated in next week’s budget.

Led by government agency Geosciences Australia,the plan will deliver data,charts and tools to the resources industry,highlighting deposits.

It will also identify locations in offshore areas of the nation for carbon capture and storage and possible sites for clean hydrogen projects.

“A future made in Australia relies on providing confidence to investors and supporting those who take on the task of exploring our vast continent,” Albanese said.

AAP

A woman has been rushed to hospital after she was allegedly stabbed outside a gym in Alexandria in Sydney’s inner south.

Police and ambulance were called to Crunch Fitness Alexandria on O’Riordan Street at 12.30pm.

The woman suffered multiple stab wounds to the side of her neck near her ear,and to her back.

Witnesses told police a man in his 40s had stabbed a 39-year-old woman.

Police believe the man and woman are known to each other.

The woman was rushed to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Police have established a crime scene and are calling on anyone with information about the incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Sydney-based politicians have taken to social media to condemn a council in western Sydney thatvoted to “rid” its libraries of books that contain same-sex parenting material.

The motion atCumberland City Council has outraged the mayor and local families and prompted an angry NSW government to threaten a review of its library funding.

Among the politicians to slam the decision was federal Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek,who said the decision was “hurtful and narrow-minded nonsense”:

In a post this morning,Wentworth MP Allegra Spender called the move “shameful”:

Good afternoon everyone,I took over the reins of the blog from Caroline Schelle a bit earlier,but am jumping in now with a quick refresher on what we’ve covered so far today.

The United States paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah against the wishes of the US,a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The shipment was supposed to comprise 1800 900-kilogram bombs and 1700 225-kilogram bombs,according to the official,who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza during Israel’s war on Hamas,which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

The pausing of the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and President Joe Biden’s administration,which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah,despite months of opposition from the White House.

US officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer,word of which came as Biden on Tuesday described US support for Israel as “ironclad,even when we disagree”.

AP