Afternoon Update: poultry farms lock down over bird flu fears; Steggall expected to launch teal party; and brave…

Good afternoon.

Poultry farms in Western Australia have gone into lockdown after the deadly H5N1 bird flu arrived on the country’s mainland, with tests confirming a second bird also carried the disease.

On Monday, the Ingham’s Group – Australia’s largest poultry producer – announced a “complete lockdown” in WA, despite no commercial detection of H5N1.

It came after a brown skua, found on a remote beach near Esperance, was discovered to have the “highly pathogenic” H5N1 virus on the weekend.

A giant petrel found several kilometres away also tested positive for the H5 strain, ministers said on Monday, as the WA government confirmed more than 50 calls to a hotline to report sick and dead birds. Both birds have since died, the WA government confirmed.

Before the confirmation of H5N1’s arrival, Australia had been the only continent free of the virus which has killed millions of birds and thousands of marine mammals since 2021.

Top news

Zali Steggall expected to launch teal party after months of secret talks

Almost three tonnes of cocaine found buried under Sydney property in Australia’s biggest ever seizure

US-Iran talks strained as Trump threats spark Iranian walkout

Clearance rates hit six-year low as more than half of Australian homes up for auction fail to sell

Where is Cape Verde? Meet the tiny African island nation upsetting World Cup giants

Inside the Socceroos’ World Cup home: ping pong, pool, retro kits and organic omelettes

World Cup 2026

The World Cup fairytale continues for tiny Cape Verde, who followed up their first up draw against Spain by gaining another point against a former world champion, Uruguay. Uruguay now face group leaders Spain under severe pressure to qualify for the next round.

Meanwhile, New Zealand led at half-time against Mo Salah’s Egypt but were swept aside 3-1 as the Liverpool legend scored the second in his nation’s first-ever World Cup victory. The result leaves the Kiwis (one point) bottom of the Group G table with Egypt going to the top on four points. Iran and Belgium played out a scoreless draw earlier and both have two points.

Group G has significant importance for Australia. If they finish second in Group D behind the United States, they’ll face the second-placed Group G team in the first knockout stage.

In pictures

Bare-bum swimmers braved the winter cold for Hobart’s Dark Mofo annual nude solstice dip. The event closed out the Dark Mofo festival at Long Beach in Hobart.

What they said …

“I’m just kind of sick of the bullshit and I want to give someone else a go, because how worse can it get?” – Tara Coles

After Pauline Hanson’s controversial speech at the National Press Club, Guardian Australia headed to Pakenham, one of the electorates One Nation is targeting in the Victorian state election, to see how the message landed.

Podcast

‘Seriously the best boss ever’: inside the world of Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant

No one’s name appears in the Epstein files more than that of Lesley Groff, his assistant. Reading through the thousands of emails, a troubling question arises: what did she know?

Listen to the episode here.

Before bed read

After 10 years of planning, four years of construction and a budget that blew out almost 10 times over, Hobart Museum’s new library and wing have opened.

The brainchild of Mona founder David Walsh, Phrontisterion has a $100m library of 30,000 books including original works by David Bowie.

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: CHAT. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

Sign up

If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know with our Morning Mail newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland.