That’s all for todayBy Isabel McMillanThanks for reading our national news blog for today, Friday, July 17. This is where we will end the live updates.Here’s a brief look at some of today’s biggest stories.Senior Telstra executives have faced a Senate inquiry following last week’s major outage. The telco has conceded it could have been avoided with a software update. Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady confirmed the company wrote to 8.8 million consumer and small business customers over last week’s outage, but said she did not expect all of them to receive compensation.The US and Iran have continued strikes amid an escalation in the conflict this week, as hopes for a truce unravel. Iranian state television reported deadly US airstrikes targeting bridges in southern Iran. At least seven people have been killed in the strikes according to the reports.Police have arrested a woman in NSW as part of their investigations into the movements of Victorian police killer Dezi Freeman. Taskforce Summit detectives arrested the 58-year-old woman today, and said she would now be interviewed by police.A landslide in the south-west of China has destroyed buildings and homes, leaving people trapped under rubble, local media has reported. Chinese news agency Xinhua said several people had been pulled from the rubble in China’s Chongqing province.Former professional cyclist Rohan Dennis faces a jail sentence after admitting he drove while banned over the events leading up to the death of his Olympian wife Melissa Hoskins. A judge previously warned the former Olympian he would be jailed if he drove while disqualified.Thanks again for tuning in. We’ll be back with live news updates next week.Latest Posts5.18pm on Jul 17, 2026Strait of Hormuz transits drop as US and Iran escalate attacks across GulfBy Just three commodity vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the fewest daily transits since May, shipping data has shown, with most ships halting or making U-turns after recent Iranian attacks on vessels and the resumption of a US blockade on Iran-related shipping.The re-escalation in fighting between the US and Iran has once again largely stopped traffic through Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping route for oil and gas, driving up global energy prices.Miraan, a sanctioned product tanker carrying fuel oil, and Norita, a small vessel carrying liquefied petroleum gas, exited the strait on Thursday via the Iranian route but stopped at the Gulf of Oman, where the US blockade is, Kpler data showed.Arolia, a bunkering tanker laden with Iraqi fuel oil that is used to refuel vessels at sea, made a U-turn to head back into the Gulf hours after it exited earlier on Friday, LSEG data showed.On Wednesday, 11 vessels crossed the strait, a fraction of the average of 125 vessels that transited the waterway daily before the war. There were no very large crude carrier or liquefied natural gas tankers passing through the strait for a second day on Thursday. However, two carriers reappeared on AIS tracking on Thursday outside the strait, carrying 2 million barrels of crude each.4.56pm on Jul 17, 2026Delays, cancellations reported at Sydney AirportBy Chris ZapponeQantas says staffing shortages at Sydney Airport have prompted the cancellations of four flights and the delays of another 14, some up to two hours.The flight disruptions stem from delays imposed by the Airservices Australia to ensure the safe movement of aircraft.Airservices, which overseas air traffic control, disputed the length of the delays as “misleading”, while blaming a variety of factors including “rostering constraints”.Four Qantas flights have been delayed today. The flight disruptions stem from delays imposed by the Airservices Australia to ensure the safe movement of aircraft.Wolter Peeters“Due to changes in forecast weather, changed peak arrival demand and demand capacity imbalance, Airservices Australia has this afternoon implemented additional air traffic flow management measures at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport to safely manage peak traffic volumes,” a spokesperson said.4.30pm on Jul 17, 2026‘Disgusting and disgraceful’: Acting Greens leader on Hanson’s podcast appearanceBy Isabel McMillanActing Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi says Pauline Hanson’s appearance on a podcast hosted by UK right-wing activist Tommy Robinson was “disgusting”, and has condemned her public holiday with billionaire Gina Rinehart.Senator Mehreen FaruqiAlex Ellinghausen“Pauline Hanson is holidaying with one billionaire, and she’s spouting racism and Islamophobia in a hotel room paid for by another billionaire’s media empire, trying to pit Australians against each other,” Faruqi told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing this hour.“Now, that is the lowest you can go, and it – that is disgusting and disgraceful.”Faruqi described Robinson as a “professional anti-migrant, anti-Muslim hate-monger and a white supremacist”, saying the podcast was the latest in a “decades-long career of hate messaging” for Hanson.“It is scary stuff, I must say. As a Muslim and a migrant in the community, this is scary stuff. But it is unfortunately, not surprising.”3.56pm on Jul 17, 2026More than 500 feared dead in missing Rohingya refugee boats By More than 500 people are feared dead after reports that two boats carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority have capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials say.According to preliminary information, the two boats left Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, including some who had travelled from refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh, a statement from the International Organisation for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.One boat, believed to have been carrying about 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying 280, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8.“While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” the agencies said.Acting Brigadier General Soe Lin Aung, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s Ministry of Home Affairs, declined to comment. Spokespeople for Myanmar’s president and the Ayeyarwady region’s government did not respond to requests for comment.AP3.31pm on Jul 17, 2026NSW woman arrested in Dezi Freeman investigationBy Isabel McMillanPolice have arrested a woman in NSW as part of their investigations into the movements of Victorian police killer Dezi Freeman.Taskforce Summit detectives arrested the 58-year-old woman today, and said she would now be interviewed by police.Dezi Freeman.Marija ErcegovacThe arrest comes as part of the investigations into Freeman’s movements after he killed two police officers in Victoria’s High Country in August last year.After killing Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart on August 26, Freeman fled into the bush with one of their guns, sparking the largest manhunt in Victoria’s history.3.05pm on Jul 17, 2026Antisemitism a symptom of increasingly polarised society, commission hearsBy Michael BachelardAntisemitism is a symptom of broader polarisation in society, according to the man who helped develop Australian universities’ definition of anti-Jewish hatred, adding that other groups also suffer trauma and hurt.Professor David Slucki, the director of the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion that political polarisation made it more difficult for universities to teach their students to have hard, but respectful, conversations.After two vice chancellors apologised at the royal commission for failings during campus encampments in 2024, Slucki said his group had developed a course on antisemitism that had already trained 1700 university leaders.“One thing I say at the beginning of every training is we all watch the violence and the events in the Middle East ... with a great deal of distress, and much of the anger, trauma that we see comes from a place of hurt,” he said.Read the full story here.2.44pm on Jul 17, 2026Telstra rejects automatic compensation payoutsBy David SwanTelstra chief executive Vicki Brady has confirmed the company wrote to 8.8 million consumer and small business customers over last week’s outage, but says she does not expect all of them to receive compensation.At a Senate inquiry, Brady defended Telstra’s decision against an automatic payout for everyone affected.Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young pressed Brady on why Telstra had not offered blanket compensation as a gesture of goodwill, with a separate process for customers who were more heavily affected.Brady said Telstra had considered a blanket amount but judged it fairer for the worst-affected customers to come forward, adding that other companies that had used blanket compensation had faced criticism for it.Brady said she expected most compensation would be issued as a credit to customers’ bills rather than cash, saying credit was “the most effective and quickest way” to process it, though the amount Telstra will pay out remains unclear.“It will just depend on how quickly customers come forward and lodge [claims] with us,” she said.Follow our rolling coverage of the inquiry via our live blog here.2.26pm on Jul 17, 2026Landslide destroys homes in ChinaBy Isabel McMillanA landslide in the south-west of China has destroyed buildings and homes, leaving people trapped under rubble, local media has reported.Chinese news agency Xinhua said several people had been pulled from the rubble in China’s Chongqing province.The landslide happened about 9am on Friday, “burying an unspecified number of houses along a section of the Wujiang River in Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County”, Xinhua reported.Footage of the incident shows smoke billowing from the scene.It is unclear if anyone has died in the landslide.2.09pm on Jul 17, 2026 Labor offers revised pay deal to head off teacher strikeBy Alex Crowe and Caroline SchelleVictorian teachers, principals and education support staff will be offered a “watershed” pay rise of 28.3 per cent over the next four years by the state government, as Labor tries to avoid school strikes planned for next week.The offer would align support staff pay increases with those of teachers and includes an increase of 12.75 per cent for all by October 2026.Victorian state school teachers rally at the steps of parliament in March.Joe ArmaoThe revised offer to teachers is a slight advance on the government’s previous position of a 28 per cent increase over four years, but less than the 35 per cent over three years sought by union members.The union will hold a meeting late on Friday to consider the offer and its next steps.The Australian Education Union has accused Labor of making “an anti-union move” by indicating it will seek to bypass it and go straight to employees, and directly email public teachers across the state with the offer.Read the full story here. 1 of 4