The Australian government has demanded Israel take “appropriate action” over its military’s “deadly failure” that killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said she and the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, wrote to their counterparts in Israel overnight on Friday after a verbal briefing on the initial findings of Israel Defense Forces’ investigation, which Wong said had not yet satisfied the government’s expectations.

“We acknowledge since we sent the letter Israel has now confirmed that two individuals involved in this incident have been stood down,” Wong told reporters on Saturday, adding that Israel was yet to respond to the letter.

“We reiterate that appropriate action must be taken against the individuals who are responsible for these tragic events.

“Clear, practical action is needed to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.”

Wong also confirmed the government would appoint a special adviser to ensure a thorough investigation into the IDF drone strike.

“We also, in our letter, raised concerns on behalf of the country that Israel’s initial responses suggest that the gravity of the death of seven humanitarian workers is yet to be appreciated by the Israeli government,” she said.

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On Friday, the IDF said it had dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in killing the aid workers, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.

Israeli Lt Col Peter Lerner told ABC radio the military was sorry for the “very grave mistake” and officers who were involved in the strike would face consequences.

Earlier this week, Wong rebuked Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for “deeply insensitive” comments attempting to “brush aside” his military’s culpability after he admitted Israeli forces “unintentionally” hit innocent people, adding “this happens in wartime”.

“We do not accept any suggestion that this is just something that can be brushed aside as just something that happens in war,” Wong told Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, recorded on Thursday.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said it was not good enough to describe the killings of the aid workers as “just a product of war”.

He previously labelled the explanations of the deaths given by Israel as “insufficient and unacceptable”.

Wong said since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel the Australian government had urged Israel to observe international humanitarian law. However, she told reporters on Saturday that “demonstrably that did not occur in relation to Zomi Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues.”

“We again say we have a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Humanitarian assistance at scale must be enabled and it is clear that to date – prior to this it has not been. Civilians, including humanitarian workers, must be protected. This incident demonstrates that has not been the case,” Wong said.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure following the killings, with US president, Joe Biden, telling Netanyahu that future US support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza would depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers.

Asked if the Australian government would follow Poland in calling for consideration of criminal liability over the aid workers’ deaths, Wong said: “I’m not ruling anything in or out.”

“The facts need to be ascertained and once the facts are ascertained, appropriate action needs to be taken. I would again say what I have said before: Israel is bound by international humanitarian law,” she said.

“This cannot be swept aside. This can’t be brushed aside.”

Wong has emphasised that this was not the first Israeli attack on aid convoys, citing UN figures that 196 aid workers had been killed prior to the World Central Kitchen incident.

“People have been raising concerns for some time about … what is occurring in relation to humanitarian workers. This has been a deadly failure of deconfliction,” Wong told reporters on Saturday, referring to the process by which aid agencies engage with defence forces to ensure they are protected in conflict zones.

“There is obviously a deadly failure. It cannot be brushed aside and it cannot be covered over.”

With additional reporting by Australian Associated Press

Hamas has announced it will take part in a new round of ceasefire talks in Cairo, as the body of an Israeli hostage has been found in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Israeli military said.

Six months into the war, repeated attempts at brokering a second truce after a week-long pause at the end of November in which hostages and Palestinian prisoners were exchanged have failed.

But Hamas, Gaza’s Islamist rulers, said on Saturday that they would send a delegation to the Egyptian capital for a fresh round of mediated talks beginning on Sunday.

Hamas reiterated its demands issued in a 14 March proposal before a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that was passed on 25 March.

The demands include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a return of the displaced, and a “serious” exchange deal of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, the statement said. Israel has repeatedly vowed that it will fight on in the Palestinian territory until Hamas is destroyed.

The CIA director Bill Burns is expected to attend Sunday’s talks, along with the Qatari foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and an Israeli delegation, Egypt’s Al Qahera news reported. Israel was undecided on whether to attend, an Israeli official said, citing concern that the event would be “more political theatre than actual progress”.

Meanwhile, the body ofElad Katzir, a 47-year-old farmer from Nir Oz kibbutz, was unearthed by commandos in southern Khan Younis overnight, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. He had been killed by his Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) captors and buried there in mid-January, it said, citing intelligence information without giving further details. There was no immediate comment from PIJ.

In an 8 January video posted by PIJ online, Katzir said: “I was close to dying more than once. It’s a miracle I’m still alive … I want to tell my family that I love them very much and I miss them very much.”

News of Katzir’s death comes as a new wave of protests call for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to do more to secure a new hostage deal, and to call early elections.

Katzir’s sister, Carmit Palty Katzir, blamed the Israeli authorities for her brother’s death, saying he would have returned alive had the authorities agreed to a new truce deal.

“Our leadership is cowardly and driven by political consideration, which is why this deal has not happened yet,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “Prime minister, war cabinet, and coalition members: look at yourself in the mirror and say if your hands didn’t spill blood.”

Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Katzir had been alive for three months after his abduction, during which time “signs of life and reports about his condition reached Israel”.

“Three months in which there was a possibility to save him and return him alive to his family and his country … The return of Elad Katzir’s body is a painful, immediate, and harsh reminder that time has long run out for the hostages.”

Katzir’s father, Avraham, was killed on 7 October, during the Hamas attack in which militants killed 1,200 people and seized another 250 as hostages. His mother, Hanna, was freed in the November truce. Officials have said that they believe at least 35 of the remaining 130 hostages have died in captivity.

Israel is also facing mounting international pressure to justify its conduct in the war in Gaza, where the local health ministry says 33,000 people have been killed and aid agencies say famine is taking hold because of Israeli obstruction of aid.

IDF ground troops have been bogged down in Khan Younis for weeks, and Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened an invasion of the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town, Rafah, where about 85% of the population of 2.3m have sought shelter.

Joe Biden, who has provided strong diplomatic and military backing for Israel’s offensive, has voiced anger at an Israeli drone attack that killed seven aid workers earlier this week.

In a phone call on Thursday, he pressed Netanyahu to take concrete action to protect humanitarians and civilians.

While US rhetoric on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has strengthened of late, critics say Biden has opted not to use Washington’s leverage as Israel’s principal arms supplier and most important international ally to bring it to the negotiating table, or get it to increase the flow of aid to the territory’s desperate population.

Guardian Newsroom: Crisis in the Middle East
On Tuesday 30 April, 7-8.15pm GMT, join Devika Bhat, Peter Beaumont, Emma Graham-Harrison and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad as they discuss the fast-developing crisis in the Middle East. Book tickets here or at theguardian.live

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Downtown Sderot, an impoverished Israeli town just a kilometre away from the north-eastern corner of the Gaza Strip, is still quiet six months after 7 October. There is no longer any trace of the police station where Hamas militants took hostages and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a two-day battle before the Israelis decided to blow up the building. The site has been levelled and is now home to flags and a memorial.

Seventy people were killed and about 90% of the town’s 28,000 residents were evacuated, most of them put up in hotels up and down the country. A huge new mural saluting the town adorns a wall of a block of flats.

On Thursday, air raid sirens that for weeks had blared incessantly went off in a neighbouring town for the first time in nearly three months as rockets were fired from Gaza, a reminder that the war is not over. But a month ago, the Israeli government decided it was time for Sderot’s residents to begin going home.

A shopping centre on the outskirts of town was more lively. Hundreds of vehicles filled the car park and families milled around newly reopened restaurants and cafes, although everyone the Guardian spoke to expressed mixed feelings about being back.

“We came back on Sunday but we think we are going to leave again. It’s not the same city any more. The memories are too much,” said Sivan, 30, whose three-year-old daughter Sheli was playing happily with her new toy, a hobby horse. “Living in a hotel is not good. It’s just a room, not a home. We will have to come up with a new plan.”

A repopulation plan for communities evacuated from southern Israel offers families up to 64,000 shekels (£13,500) in grants if they return. While the 60,000 evacuees will be able to remain in hotel accommodation until 1 July, the amount in grants available will diminish week by week: those who stay away the longest will receive about 10% of the full amount available.

Schools in Sderot reopened in early March, a development that led many families to come back. For Nir, 40, who came home with his wife and three daughters last month, readjusting has been hard.

The family spent 7 and 8 October locked in their safe room while battles raged throughout the town, before being rescued by special forces. Elia, seven, his eldest child, now struggles to leave home. Her best friend’s parents were killed, and Nir lost friends in the attack.

About 20% of the family’s neighbourhood had left for good, he estimated. “My wife wants things to go back to normal but I think for the girls’ sake we need to start again somewhere else, away from the sirens,” he said as he, Elia and her sister Gaia waited for hamburgers.

For many Israelis, the worst of the war in Gaza is over. Most reservists have been rotated out and there are now three and a half brigades fighting in the central city of Khan Younis, compared with seven when ground troops first entered the strip in late October. In Tel Aviv’s bars, people already talk about it in the past tense – “when I was called up”, “when the rockets were falling”.

But as Israel’s operation in Gaza claims more and more lives – 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last six months – there is a sense that the rest of the world has forgotten, or diminished, the traumas Israelis suffered the day Hamas started the war, killing more than 1,100 people and taking about 250 hostage.

At the site of the Nova festival, which it is believed was not one of Hamas’s planned targets but where militants nonetheless killed 360 partygoers and raped and abducted more, there are now pictures of the dead surrounded by candles, flowers, Israeli flags and notes and tributes from loved ones.

The eucalyptus grove has become something of a pilgrimage site for Israelis, and foreigners, who come to pay their respects. On Thursday a police officer who responded to the massacre on 7 October told a visiting group of Americans about what he witnessed; many people cried as they walked around the site. Artillery booms nearby occasionally shattered the reverent atmosphere.

Jerry Kirstein, 73, visiting his daughter on a trip from Miami, said: “My parents survived the Holocaust. OTSD, that’s what everyone in this country has: ongoing traumatic stress disorder.”

The family lost a friend, a first responder, who was killed in a gun battle at a military base nearby. “Now the world is judging Israel for defending its people,” Kirstein said. “That’s crazy.”

There are mounting questions from the international community over the IDF’s conduct in the conflict, including its use of AI-driven targeting systems that the Guardian revealed may be contributing to the shockingly high death toll, and Israel’s inability or unwillingness to stave off looming famine by increasing the flow of aid.

Even amid new pressure from the US, Israel’s major ally, for an immediate ceasefire and “concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm”, support for the war remains strong among the Israeli public – even if trust in the government and in the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is low.

This week saw the biggest street protests since the war began. While the demonstrators, among them the families of the remaining hostages, have different motivations, they are united in their call for early elections.

It is widely believed that Netanyahu is seeking to delay the end of the war, and play up the possibility of full-scale conflict in the north with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in order to stave off an election. Staying in office remains his best chance of beating corruption charges, which he has always denied, as well as evading responsibility for Israel’s failure to protect its people on 7 October.

Cassie, a 19-year-old student from Manchester, said her last visit to Israel was two years ago. “I think it’s not so much that Israel has changed since 7 October, but everyone else,” she said. “Getting to know people at uni has been difficult. They may not know I’m Jewish, but I see their opinions on social media. The way people see Israel has changed.”

A man has died and more than 160 people have been rescued as a deluge across eastern New South Wales caused landslips, flash flooding and rapid rises in river levels.

Suburbs on Sydney’s fringes are facing the threat of significant flooding after more than a month’s rain fell overnight, while a major landslip in the Blue Mountains has cut off a community.

A home was washed into a street in Mount Keira in Wollongong, which was hit with between 200mm and 250mm of rain in 24 hours.

The storm threat lowered on Saturday afternoon, with a severe weather warning cancelled over the far south coast.

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, earlier called for caution amid expected days-long riverine flooding.

“It’s important to note that flood levels in some of the rivers, particularly in western Sydney, are continuing to rise,” he told reporters on Saturday.

The body of the man was spotted in water near a Penrith reserve at about 7.30am on Saturday.

The man has not yet been formally identified and the cause of the death was unknown, police said. Officers established a crime scene, an investigation into the death is under way and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

Sydney may have woken up to blue skies on Saturday, but flood levels were continuing to rise across parts of New South Wales with evacuation orders issued after an overnight deluge broke rainfall records.

Suburbs on the city fringes were facing the threat of significant flooding after copping more than a month’s worth of rain while a major landslip in the Blue Mountains left one community cut off.

The premier, Chris Minns, called for caution, noting just under 4,000 volunteers “spent the night in the cold and windy and rainy conditions, saving people’s lives”.

Warragamba dam, which holds most of Sydney’s water supply, reached full capacity and began spilling early on Saturday morning – two days earlier than predicted.

Levels at the dam were expected to peak at midnight on Saturday, but the New South Wales State Emergency Service commissioner, Carlene York, said communities along the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system would be “feeling that for the next few days”.

Evacuation orders were issued by the SES for 11 locations overnight on Friday and Saturday morning, including along the Hawkesbury-Nepean, low-lying parts of Chipping Norton in western Sydney and North Narrabeen on the northern beaches.

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“While it looks like blue skies across Sydney at the moment and the emergency rain situation seems to be easing … it is important to note that flood levels in some of the rivers, particularly in western Sydney, are continuing to rise and that presents a danger for some communities,” Minns told reporters on Saturday.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Steven Bernasconi said three rivers were likely to continue to rise, including the Hawkesbury at North Richmond, which was at moderate flooding but could see major flooding on Saturday afternoon.

Bernasconi said the Hawkesbury River at Windsor and the Colo River were also predicted to continue to rise, despite the deluge moving southwards.

The rain and wind threat was “contracting to the south-east”, he said, with “the coast and ranges down in the south of NSW … areas like Moruya and Narooma” receiving most of the rain.

The SES was involved in 152 flood rescues by Saturday morning, including 72 in metropolitan Sydney, and had received more than 4,000 calls for help over the past 24 hours.

Some parts of Sydney were hit with 200mm of rain, with Darks Forest in the Georges River basin hit with a 229mm deluge in 24 hours.

The Cooks River burst its banks at Earlwood after 7am on Saturday, triggering road closures and early morning traffic.

Bernasconi said the situation was easing with heavy rainfall starting to move out into the Tasman Sea.

But flash flooding and landslips remained a concern for Wollongong, the Illawarra and the south coast with two people reportedly taken to hospital after a home at Mt Kiera washed into a creek.

In the Blue Mountains, a landslip on a primary access road left a community cut off with authorities scrambling to arrange food drops.

“It’s the only access in and out of the valley,” Mike Davis, the owner of nearby vineyard Megalong Creek Estate, said.

“A lot of people are down here camping or in Airbnb’s at the moment so they need to do something fast.”

Around 40,000 homes and businesses lost power over the past 24 hours with fallen trees and powerlines further interrupting supply, Ausgrid said in a statement.

York said the SES was working with communities affected by the evacuation orders and would dedicate resources in southern parts of the state.

Up to 150mm of rain remained possible within a six-hour period for areas stretching hundreds of kilometres from the Blue Mountains to Narooma.

“The areas of our priority at the moment are … towards Wollongong, Illawarra and down into the south coast as this system continues to move down the coast and hopefully very soon out to sea,” York said.

Heavy rainfall and possibly severe thunderstorms were also battering southeastern parts of Queensland on Saturday and were expected to continue throughout the weekend.

Surfers and other beachgoers were warned to stay “well away from the surf and surf-exposed areas” due to dangerous conditions, particularly at east-facing beaches.

The BoM’s forecast for Sunday indicated possible severe storms with heavy rainfall over south-east Queensland, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast in the morning.

“My dad was murdered there. The people that murdered my dad are still around … I fear the same thing will happen to me.”

Mohamed Coker, 33, spoke to Guardian Australia on his way to the airport.

After almost a decade in immigration detention he was told on Saturday morning that, within hours, he would be deported to Sierra Leone, a country he left at five years of age after his father, a police officer, was killed in the civil war.

In Australia he has a mother, Grace; a partner, Princess George; and an 11-year-old son, Joshua; all of whom are Australian citizens. In Sierra Leone he has nobody.

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But that is where the Australian government plans to send him, after his application for a protection visa was refused about four years ago.

Lawyer Alison Battisson said a week ago Coker was informed he could be deported “on or from” 6 April, but his deportation has moved with unusual haste.

Battisson is concerned the government hasn’t “updated its information, nobody knows what’s happening in Sierra Leone”. Smart Traveller warns of “the threat of violent crime and the risk of civil unrest”, particularly after a failed coup attempt in late 2023.

Grace, Coker’s mother, said that Sierra Leone “is not peaceful, they’re killing people every day”. “He doesn’t know Sierra Leone, he doesn’t know anybody.”

After escaping to Guinea as a child, Coker came to Australia on a humanitarian visa in his teens but his visa was cancelled after a conviction for grievous bodily harm.

“I was doing everything right until that day,” Coker said. “A few boys attacked me and my friends. I was afraid – there were so many of them. One of them ended up getting stabbed. I don’t know if it was me. Since then my life has been upside down.”

When Coker was sent to prison his partner, Princess, was pregnant with their son. After he served his sentence he was taken into immigration detention, including in Sydney, away from his family in Brisbane.

He has never met his son Joshua in person, communicating only through phone and video calls.

“I’m not a bad person … I just made one mistake,” Coker said. “I didn’t come to this country to commit crime, I came for a better life.”

“I just need a second chance to prove I’m not a bad person. I want to be with my son. My dad was not in my life … My dad was murdered – I don’t want [Joshua] going through the same, not knowing his dad.”

Princess George said: “They’re taking him without his consent. You can’t just grab somebody, without him knowing what instability he will face.”

“Whats going to happen with his son? His son is a citizen. What happened to human rights in all of this?”

“Joshua will be fatherless … He always cries and says ‘why can Dad never come to my soccer game, all my friends have their dad’.

“He’s going to lose focus and crash, he’s going to be depressed.”

Shortly after noon on Saturday, Coker said his flight would depart at 3:30pm.

At the time, Battisson feared she would lose the ability to communicate with him, and that it would be “game over” because Australia would never allow him to re-enter the country given his criminal record.

Later on Saturday afternoon Battisson applied for an emergency injunction to prevent Coker’s deportation on the basis an application for ministerial intervention she filed on 1 April had not been brought to the minister’s attention.

The government gave an undertaking not to remove Coker until a further court hearing.

Even with the temporary reprieve, it’s a scene that could be repeated more easily if the government’s deportation bill passes the parliament.

The bill creates powers for the immigration minister to require unlawful non-citizens to cooperate in their deportation, on the threat of a minimum of a year in prison if they refuse. The bill also expands ministerial powers to reverse protection findings.

According to the government, the bill is “necessary to address circumstances where non-citizens who have no valid reason to remain in Australia and who have not left voluntarily as expected, are not cooperating with appropriate and lawful efforts to remove them”.

Battisson said the issue with the bill is that many people have made protection claims “years ago” but “the situation on the ground has changed”.

She said Coker’s pending deportation is part of the government’s “general approach of out-Duttoning [Peter] Dutton”, a reference to Labor’s efforts to replicate the opposition leader and former home affairs minister’s hard-line approach to non-citizens.

“We are so incredibly hard now,” Battisson said. “I’m surprised … they haven’t invited [Coker] to reapply and reassess his claims.”

Grace said: “I feel like I’m dying now – Australia [wants to] return my son to a country he doesn’t know. All my relatives have been killed in the civil war, everybody died.”

“Why is Australia doing this to me? They’re taking my soul away.”

Guardian Australia contacted the home affairs and immigration ministers, Australian Border Force, and the home affairs department for comment.

Independent candidate and salmon farming opponent Craig Garland has secured the final spot in Tasmania’s parliament, leaving the Liberals with 14 seats, Labor 10, the Greens five, Jacqui Lambie Network three and three independents.

Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said with the 35 members of the state’s assembly elected, 13 of them new faces, he would advise governor Barbara Baker that he be recommissioned to form a new government.

The incumbent Liberals will have to cobble together a minority arrangement with crossbench support after falling short of the 18 seats required for majority at the 23 March poll.

The party has been in power since 2014.

One seat, in the north-west electorate of Braddon, remained undecided on Friday as the distribution of preferences continued.

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Garland, a fisher, campaigned as an independent in Braddon against industrial offshore aquaculture.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said on Saturday afternoon Garland was 943 votes ahead of the seat’s fourth Liberal candidate, Giovanna Simpson, with not enough ballots remaining to change the result.

“I am confident we now have a parliament comprised of members who are committed to providing the stability and certainty that Tasmania needs and who will put the best interests of Tasmanians first,” Rockliff said in a statement.

“The new government will be steadfast in its commitment to delivering every element of the Liberals’ 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future.”

He also promised to treat the outcome of the election with “respect and maturity” but again ruled out doing deals with the Greens or trading ministries.

Rockliff said his constructive and positive discussions with Jacqui Lambie Network members and independents continued.

Garland has previously described himself as an “anti-politician” and accused parties of hijacking democracy for their survival.

He has run at several state elections and picked up more than 5% of the first-preference vote.

A third of Tasmanians snubbed the two major parties at the election, with the Liberals receiving 37% of the primary vote and Labor 29%.

Labor, which picked up just 10 seats, conceded it was unable to form government the day after the election.

The crossbench will also include independents David O’Byrne and Kristie Johnston.

Senator Jacqui Lambie, who hails from Tasmania’s north-west, has indicated her party is prepared to provide stability to the Liberals.

Each of Tasmania’s five electorates is represented by seven MPs under the Hare-Clark proportional voting system.

Independent candidate and salmon farming opponent Craig Garland has secured the final spot in Tasmania’s parliament, leaving the Liberals with 14 seats, Labor 10, the Greens five, Jacqui Lambie Network three and three independents.

Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said with the 35 members of the state’s assembly elected, 13 of them new faces, he would advise governor Barbara Baker that he be recommissioned to form a new government.

The incumbent Liberals will have to cobble together a minority arrangement with crossbench support after falling short of the 18 seats required for majority at the 23 March poll.

The party has been in power since 2014.

One seat, in the north-west electorate of Braddon, remained undecided on Friday as the distribution of preferences continued.

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Garland, a fisher, campaigned as an independent in Braddon against industrial offshore aquaculture.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said on Saturday afternoon Garland was 943 votes ahead of the seat’s fourth Liberal candidate, Giovanna Simpson, with not enough ballots remaining to change the result.

“I am confident we now have a parliament comprised of members who are committed to providing the stability and certainty that Tasmania needs and who will put the best interests of Tasmanians first,” Rockliff said in a statement.

“The new government will be steadfast in its commitment to delivering every element of the Liberals’ 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future.”

He also promised to treat the outcome of the election with “respect and maturity” but again ruled out doing deals with the Greens or trading ministries.

Rockliff said his constructive and positive discussions with Jacqui Lambie Network members and independents continued.

Garland has previously described himself as an “anti-politician” and accused parties of hijacking democracy for their survival.

He has run at several state elections and picked up more than 5% of the first-preference vote.

A third of Tasmanians snubbed the two major parties at the election, with the Liberals receiving 37% of the primary vote and Labor 29%.

Labor, which picked up just 10 seats, conceded it was unable to form government the day after the election.

The crossbench will also include independents David O’Byrne and Kristie Johnston.

Senator Jacqui Lambie, who hails from Tasmania’s north-west, has indicated her party is prepared to provide stability to the Liberals.

Each of Tasmania’s five electorates is represented by seven MPs under the Hare-Clark proportional voting system.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the Orenburg region, in the southern Urals near Kazakhstan, due to flooding after a dam burst.

Emergency services had been working through the night after the dam burst in the city of Orsk on Friday after torrential rain.

The press service of the Orenburg governor said 4,208 people, including 1,019 children, had been evacuated and more than 2,500 homes were affected.

Russia opened a criminal case for “negligence and violation of construction safety rules” over the burst dam, which was built in 2014.

The Orenburg regional governor, Denis Pasler, said specialists assessed that the dam was built “for a different weight” and that the level of rainfall was “exceptional”.

Authorities said the situation was difficult throughout the region, warning of a dangerous water level on the Ural river in the main city of Orenburg.

The mayor of the city of half a million people, Sergei Salmin, said authorities would forcibly evacuate people from flooded zones if they refused orders to leave.

He said the water level of the Ural river had risen to 855 centimetres and “will rise” further.

He named several districts of the city and nearby villages likely to be affected.

“The situation leaves you no choice. At night, the river can reach a critical level,” he said. “I call on everyone in the flooded zone to leave their houses immediately.

“There is no time for convincing,” he added, saying that “those who refuse to leave the danger zone voluntarily, we will forcibly evacuate with the help of police officers”.

The Kazakh president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, said the floods were one of the worst natural disasters in Kazakhstan in 80 years.

He called for authorities in the Central Asian country to be ready to help those affected.

Russian emergency services published images of rescue workers going through villages on boats and hovercrafts.

Several regions in the Urals and western Siberia have been affected by floods since the start of spring.

Greta Thunberg was detained by police at a demonstration in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

The climate activist was put in a bus by local police along with other protesters who tried to block a major highway into the city on Saturday.

Thunberg had joined a protest by hundreds of activists and was detained when she joined a group of about 100 people who tried to block the A12 highway.

Before she was detained, Thunberg said: “We are in a planetary emergency and we are not going to stand by and let people lose their lives and livelihood and be forced to become climate refugees when we can do something.”

The road has been blocked for several hours dozens of times in recent months by activists demanding an end to all subsidies for the use of fossil fuels.

At previous protests, police drove detained protesters to another part of the city, where they were released without further consequences.

Thunberg was seen flashing a victory sign as she sat in the bus used by police to take detained demonstrators from the scene.

The Extinction Rebellion campaign group said before the demonstration that the activists would block a main highway into The Hague, but a heavy police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented the activists from getting on to the road.

A small group of people managed to sit down on another road and were detained after ignoring police orders to leave.

Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked the highway that runs past the temporary home of the Dutch parliament more than 30 times to protest against subsidies.

The demonstrators waved flags and chanted: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible.”

One held a banner reading: “This is a dead end street.”

In February, Thunberg, 21, was acquitted by a court in London of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance to an oil and gas industry conference last year.

Her activism has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight the climate crisis since she began staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament in 2018.

She has repeatedly been fined in Sweden and the UK for civil disobedience in connection with protests.

Advertisements offering patients “simple” access to their superannuation to pay for medical treatments have been described by the peak consumer health body as a “worrying trend” amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) approved 37,400 individuals to access their superannuation early on compassionate medical grounds in 2022-23, releasing a total of $730m.

That compares with 30,100 individuals and $545m the previous year. Of those approved in 2022-23, 13,540 people used the funds for dental treatment, 2,780 for IVF and 14,410 for weight loss treatments.

The chief executive of the Consumers Health Forum, Dr Elizabeth Deveny, said: “Together with the rising cost of living, we believe that one of the reasons more people are dipping into their super to pay for their healthcare costs is because of the increasing privatisation of Australian healthcare.

“It is a worrying trend.”

She said that as more services were offered privately – rather than through Medicare – people would increasingly need to pay large out-of-pocket amounts to cover their healthcare costs.

There are strict rules about accessing super for medical treatment. Individuals must provide the ATO with a medical report from two registered medical practitioners, one of whom must be a specialist in the field of treatment.

The reports must certify that the treatment is required to treat a life-threatening illness or injury, alleviate acute or chronic pain or alleviate an acute or chronic mental illness and that treatment is not readily available in the public health system.

But numerous online advertisements, especially for dental treatment, describe accessing superannuation for medical purposes as a “quick” and “simple” process and offer services to help patients to do so.

“We are concerned about a business model where private providers are helping people to access their super for this reason, in tandem with promoting clinics who offer a range of services,” Deveny said.

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“While we recognise that it is not illegal for dental practitioners to be advertising in this way, we aren’t exactly thrilled by it either. For us, it is a worrying trend that more and more health professions might soon start encouraging their patients to dig into their super too.”

In February, the financial services minister, Stephen Jones, said in an address to the Sydney Institute: “There are surgeons and medical practitioners who view super as their personal river of gold.

“They are encouraging, and even pressuring, patients to tap into their super for what might be termed life‑enhancing procedures like cosmetic surgery,” he said.

“There are business models set up to game the system. It is greedy.”

A spokesperson for the minister said he stood by the comments, and that the objective of superannuation was “to preserve savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement”.

The spokesperson said ATO data could not be examined at a more granular level to determine the process that led to the release of funds, but said the minister had been approached by “concerned stakeholders” concerned that “individuals are actively encouraged to access their super to pay for medical procedures”.

An ATO spokesperson said staff thoroughly reviewed every application to determine whether they met a lawful ground for release of funds.

But the scheme “appropriately and necessarily relies on the professional ethics of medical professionals to provide accurate reports”, the spokesperson said. “ATO staff are not equipped, or required, to question a patient’s diagnosis or the required treatment strategy.

“It would be deeply inappropriate for the ATO to interfere in the relationship between a patient and their medical professional and double-guess a diagnosis.”

The chief executive of the Australian Dental Association, Damian Mitsch, said if people could not access dental care unless they dipped into superannuation it was “indicative of a healthcare system in which some people are desperate and unable to afford essential care”.

“Our advice to Australians is that accessing superannuation can have long term financial effects … people should properly understand what the long term financial impact is before agreeing to sign off on a superannuation withdrawal.”

Advertisements offering patients “simple” access to their superannuation to pay for medical treatments have been described by the peak consumer health body as a “worrying trend” amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) approved 37,400 individuals to access their superannuation early on compassionate medical grounds in 2022-23, releasing a total of $730m.

That compares with 30,100 individuals and $545m the previous year. Of those approved in 2022-23, 13,540 people used the funds for dental treatment, 2,780 for IVF and 14,410 for weight loss treatments.

The chief executive of the Consumers Health Forum, Dr Elizabeth Deveny, said: “Together with the rising cost of living, we believe that one of the reasons more people are dipping into their super to pay for their healthcare costs is because of the increasing privatisation of Australian healthcare.

“It is a worrying trend.”

She said that as more services were offered privately – rather than through Medicare – people would increasingly need to pay large out-of-pocket amounts to cover their healthcare costs.

There are strict rules about accessing super for medical treatment. Individuals must provide the ATO with a medical report from two registered medical practitioners, one of whom must be a specialist in the field of treatment.

The reports must certify that the treatment is required to treat a life-threatening illness or injury, alleviate acute or chronic pain or alleviate an acute or chronic mental illness and that treatment is not readily available in the public health system.

But numerous online advertisements, especially for dental treatment, describe accessing superannuation for medical purposes as a “quick” and “simple” process and offer services to help patients to do so.

“We are concerned about a business model where private providers are helping people to access their super for this reason, in tandem with promoting clinics who offer a range of services,” Deveny said.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

“While we recognise that it is not illegal for dental practitioners to be advertising in this way, we aren’t exactly thrilled by it either. For us, it is a worrying trend that more and more health professions might soon start encouraging their patients to dig into their super too.”

In February, the financial services minister, Stephen Jones, said in an address to the Sydney Institute: “There are surgeons and medical practitioners who view super as their personal river of gold.

“They are encouraging, and even pressuring, patients to tap into their super for what might be termed life‑enhancing procedures like cosmetic surgery,” he said.

“There are business models set up to game the system. It is greedy.”

A spokesperson for the minister said he stood by the comments, and that the objective of superannuation was “to preserve savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement”.

The spokesperson said ATO data could not be examined at a more granular level to determine the process that led to the release of funds, but said the minister had been approached by “concerned stakeholders” concerned that “individuals are actively encouraged to access their super to pay for medical procedures”.

An ATO spokesperson said staff thoroughly reviewed every application to determine whether they met a lawful ground for release of funds.

But the scheme “appropriately and necessarily relies on the professional ethics of medical professionals to provide accurate reports”, the spokesperson said. “ATO staff are not equipped, or required, to question a patient’s diagnosis or the required treatment strategy.

“It would be deeply inappropriate for the ATO to interfere in the relationship between a patient and their medical professional and double-guess a diagnosis.”

The chief executive of the Australian Dental Association, Damian Mitsch, said if people could not access dental care unless they dipped into superannuation it was “indicative of a healthcare system in which some people are desperate and unable to afford essential care”.

“Our advice to Australians is that accessing superannuation can have long term financial effects … people should properly understand what the long term financial impact is before agreeing to sign off on a superannuation withdrawal.”

The former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop has been appointed the United Nations secretary general António Guterres’ special envoy on Myanmar, the world body has said.

Bishop, the Australian National University’s chancellor, will take up the UN role that has been vacant since June last year, when Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer stepped down.

The UN said in a statement that Bishop had “extensive policy, legal and senior management experience”.

“I am deeply honoured to be appointed special envoy of the secretary general of the United Nations on Myanmar to help deliver on the mandate of the general assembly and the security council resolution of December 2022,” Bishop said in a statement.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, welcomed the news on Saturday morning.

“Ms Bishop brings a wealth of experience to the role and her appointment comes at a critical time as the political, humanitarian and security situation in Myanmar continues to worsen,” she said.

“The people of Myanmar continue to demonstrate great resolve in the face of unspeakable violence and human rights abuses, and Australia remains resolute in our support for them.”

Wong said the special envoy played a vital role in sustaining international attention and supporting coordinated efforts towards a peaceful resolution in the troubled south-east Asian nation.

Australia would work closely with Bishop, Asean and the international community to build conditions for sustainable peace, she said.

Wong also reiterated the government’s call for the Myanmar regime to “cease violence against civilians, release those unjustly detained, allow safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance and return Myanmar to the path of inclusive democracy”.

The ANU vice-chancellor, Prof Genevieve Bell, also congratulated Bishop on the appointment.

“As Australia’s first female foreign minister, Julie made an incredible contribution to global politics,” Bell said.

“Now, she’s adding special envoy to her illustrious career in global diplomacy. This is a well-deserved recognition of her significant impact on contemporary international relations.”

Myanmar has been in crisis since the army took power from Aung Suu Kyi’s elected government on 1 February 2021.

The country is locked in a civil war between the military on one side and, on the other, a loose alliance of ethnic minority rebels and an armed resistance movement spawned out of the junta’s crackdown on anti-coup protests.

Bishop was Australia’s foreign minister from 2013 to 2018 under prime ministers Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

She was deputy leader of the Liberal party from 2007 to 2018, before retiring from politics in April 2019.

Bishop became chancellor of ANU in January 2020. She will continue in that role, while also undertaking her work with the UN.

The wrestler turned action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson dealt a blow to Joe Biden, saying he would not repeat his endorsement of the president in his looming rematch with Donald Trump.

Johnson endorsed Biden in his first contest with Trump four years ago, saluting the former vice-president and senator for his “compassion, heart, drive and soul”.

But in an interview with Fox News on Friday, Johnson said: “Am I going to do that again this year? That answer’s no. I realise now going into this election, I will not do that.”

Long the subject of rumours about his own political ambitions, Johnson reportedly fielded an approach from No Labels, the centrist group that now says it will not run a candidate against Biden and Trump.

Johnson has not disavowed talk of running for office. In 2021, after a poll showed public support, he said: “I don’t think our Founding Fathers EVER envisioned a six-four, bald, tattooed, half-Black, half-Samoan, tequila drinking, pickup truck driving, fanny pack-wearing guy joining their club – but if it ever happens it’d be my honour to serve you, the people.”

Last year, he said the same poll led “the parties” to his door.

“That was an interesting poll that happened and I was really moved by that,” Johnson told a podcast. “I was really blown away and I was really honoured. I’ll share this little bit with you: at the end of the year in 2022, I got a visit from the parties asking me if I was going to run, and if I could run.

“It was a big deal, and it came out of the blue. It was one after the other, and they brought up that poll, and they also brought up their own deep-dive research that would prove that should I ever go down that road [I’d be a real contender]. It was all very surreal because that’s never been my goal. My goal has never been to be in politics. As a matter of fact, there’s a lot about politics that I hate.”

Johnson overcame that hatred in September 2020, when he endorsed Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris.

“You guys are both experienced to lead, you’ve done great things,” Johnson said.

“Joe, you’ve had such an incredible career, and you’ve led with such great compassion, heart, drive, and soul … Kamala, you have been a district attorney, a state attorney, a US senator. You are smart and tough. I have seen you in those hearings.”

Biden beat Trump convincingly but four years on, Johnson told Fox News: “Am I happy with the state of America right now? Well, that answer’s no. Do I believe we’re gonna get better? I believe in that – I’m an optimistic guy. And I believe we can do better.

“The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was what I thought was the best decision for me at that time. I thought back then, when we talked about, ‘Hey, you know, I’m in this position where I have some influence,’ and it was my job then … to exercise my influence and share … who I’m going to endorse.”

Johnson also said his “goal is to bring this country together” but said he would “keep my politics to myself”.

“It is between me and the ballot box,” he said. “Like a lot of us out there, not trusting of all politicians, I do trust the American people and whoever they vote for that is my president and who I will support 100%.”

Donald Trump faced mounting trouble this week in his legal universe, with judges overseeing two of Trump’s legal cases refusing to accept his attempts to delay and toss the prosecution – and the former president doubling down on efforts to discredit his opponents.

The judge overseeing Trump’s criminal trial in New York expanded a gag order on Monday, which had originally banned Donald Trump from making public statements about court staff, trial witnesses or the families of any counsel or staff member on the case. The narrower gag order did not prohibit Trump from making statements about family members of the judge, and after Judge Juan Merchan issued it, the former president took to social media to attack the judge’s daughter.

“His Daughter,” wrote Trump on the social media platform Truth Social, “is a Rabid Trump Hater,” identifying her by name.

The new gag order would now prevent him from making statements like that – but Trump’s abusive commentary about her, and others involved with his trial has probably already prompted threats and harassment.

In a court filing revealed on Tuesday, Trump also motioned for Merchan to recuse himself from the case, alleging his daughter’s consulting work for Democratic clients was a conflict of interest.

“It can no longer be ignored that Authentic’s commercial interests are benefited by developments in this case,” wrote Trump’s lawyers in the filing.

This is the second time Trump has attempted to oust the judge over his daughter’s work; last year, an ethics panel reviewed a similar argument by Trump’s legal team but found Merchan’s daughter and her firm did not pose a conflict of interest.

Merchan denied on 3 April Trump’s last-minute attempt to delay the trial until the supreme court rules on presidential immunity claims that arising out of a separate case.

The trial – over Trump’s efforts to suppress a sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election by allegedly falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to the former stripper and adult film star Stormy Daniels – is set to begin on 15 April. It will be the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president.

Meanwhile, the US district judge Aileen Cannon rejected Trump’s attempt to throw out the case alleging he mishandled and illegally retained classified documents. Trump had argued he was entitled to retain the documents under the Presidential Records Act; Cannon rejected his bid to toss the case on grounds the charges “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act, nor do they rely on that statute for purposes of stating an offense”, she wrote.

Her finding nonetheless leaves open the possibility for Trump to use the theory that he had legitimately retained the documents under the Presidential Records Act, setting her on a collision course with the Department of Justice’s special counsel Jack Smith, who has called the Presidential Records Act theory a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” and said he would appeal to a higher court if the judge recognizes the theory.

Cannon has slow-walked the case over Trump’s alleged illegal retention of classified documents, which FBI agents uncovered at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. Prosecutors hoped to begin the trial in July, but Cannon has not yet set a trial date, allowing Trump to postpone filing pre-trial motions required for it to commence.

That’s a win for Trump, who has sought to delay his numerous prosecutions ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

A theatre company has condemned the “barrage of deplorable racial abuse” that has been directed at a cast member of a new production of Romeo & Juliet.

In a statement on Friday, the Jamie Lloyd Company said the online abuse “must stop” and that further harassment would be reported. It came after the announcement of the full cast of the show, including Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as Romeo and Juliet, alongside Freema Agyeman, Michael Balogun, Tomiwa Edun, Mia Jerome, Daniel Quinn-Toye and Ray Sesay.

“Following the announcement of our Romeo & Juliet cast, there has been a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online directed towards a member of our company,” the statement said. “This must stop. We are working with a remarkable group of artists. We insist that they are free to create work without facing online harassment.”

The company, run by the director Jamie Lloyd, said it would “continue to support and protect everyone in our company at all costs. Any abuse will not be tolerated and will be reported. Bullying and harassment have no place online, in our industry or in our wider communities.”

Its rehearsal room for the show was “full of joy, compassion and kindness,” the company said.

It added: “We celebrate the extraordinary talent of our incredible collaborators. The Romeo & Juliet community will continue to rehearse with generosity and love, and focus on the creation of our production.”

The play runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre from 11 May – 3 August. It will be the Spider-Man star Holland’s first major theatre role since his debut in Billy Elliot: The Musical.

Last summer, he said he was taking a break from acting after starring in the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, a psychological thriller that he also produced. The star has become one of Britain’s best-known young screen actors but owes his career to the stage.

Lloyd is known for mounting bold, megastar-led versions of classic plays such as Doctor Faustus with Kit Harington, Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston and The Seagull with Emilia Clarke. His new production of the musical Sunset Boulevard, with Nicole Scherzinger, recently ended a sold-out run at London’s Savoy theatre and is transferring to Broadway in September.

Last year Lloyd directed Taylor Russell and Paapa Essiedu in a revival of Lucy Prebble’s play The Effect at the National Theatre, before opening at the Shed in New York last month.

Romeo & Juliet is billed as “a pulsating new vision of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of wordsmiths, rhymers, lovers and fighters”. It is Lloyd’s first Shakespeare production since he staged Richard III at Trafalgar Studios in 2014, with Martin Freeman in the lead role.