Australia news live: Tropical Cyclone Narelle bears down on WA towns; Kyle Sandilands sacking case in court

Key events29m agoWelcomeShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureIn today’s press conference at the White House, the US president has taken another swipe at NATO, the UK and Australia for not being more involved in his war against Iran.We have covered the NATO comments here:But Australia got a little mention too, late in the press conference, in response to a question about his phone calls with UK PM Keir Starmer.Trump said: double quotation mark[Starmer] did something that was shocking: he didn’t want to help us. And maybe in particular that country, you know, the longest bond, the longest ally. Australia, too, Australia was not great. I was a little surprised by Australia. I wouldn’t say anybody was great, other than the five countries in the Middle East. We never really had very much support. A series of isolated coastal towns are in the firing line as a powerful tropical cyclone barrels towards Australia’s west coast, Australian Associated Press reports.Tropical Cyclone Narelle, which was upgraded yesterday to a severe category four system off the Western Australian packing winds up to 250km/h, is on track to cross the coast late on Friday between Carnarvon and Kalbarri as a degraded category three system.Cyclone Narelle at 1am AEDT Illustration: Bureau of MeteorologyIt was tracking parallel to the coast around Exmouth overnight, the Bureau of Meteorology said, and would affect Coral Bay and Denham before crossing the coast in the Shark Bay area.Kalbarri State Emergency Service deputy Steve Duncan said the town was as prepared as it could be for Narelle’s arrival in the early hours of Saturday.“The majority of the town was here for (Cyclone Seroja in 2021),” he said.“That’s one benefit of past events, people are more aware.”Seroja flattened the coastal town of about 1500 people after it crossed the coast as a category three system.“People are still quite jumpy,” Duncan said.“It was quite a traumatic event for the town, so people are very wary on any potential cyclone Impact in the area, which is quite understandable.”Read our report here:WelcomeGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Stephanie Convery will take you through the day.Isolated Western Australian coastal towns were in the firing line as Tropical Cyclone Narelle continued to build in strength overnight as it rolled parallel to the coast before expected landfall later today.Controversial radio host Kyle Sandilands is expected to make his first appearance in court today in a showdown with a $100m contract on the line. We’ll have details as it happens.