Katie Watson

This is the largest legal claim ever brought by the Australian government, which argues that foam containing chemicals that don't naturally break down was used in 28 defense bases across the country.

the government seeking to recover what it called significant costs of investigating, managing and fixing the contamination.

3M has said that the company would defend itself against the claims, adding that the Department of Defence kept using the firefighting foam in question for two decades after it stopped selling the product in Australia.

Monday Night's footage showed dozens of lights dropping down mid-performance. The drones splashed into the harbour or nearby marina, with reports that some only narrowly missed hitting people. We heard more from our Sydney correspondent, Katie Watson. It's called Starbound, and there are around a thousand drones. It's a display that lasts about 12 minutes, but on Monday night, as the music started playing, about 89 drones started dropping.

They landed in the water in Darling Harbour. It's an area called Cockle Bay. There were a couple that seemed to kind of hit the marina. Most of them I think fell in the water. Sky Magic, which has put on, it's a UK company with different branches in Singapore and the US.

They said that effectively during the performance there was a technical issue. It was because of an unforeseen change in the radio frequency environment occurring after takeoff. So basically some of these drones landed in response to some compromised position, just dropped. Yeah, it's quite extraordinary seeing the footage as the show goes on and then suddenly these lights just start falling to the ground. I mean, it could have been really dangerous.

Kyllä, ja se on mielenkiintoista, koska kun katsoit drone-showt, voit kuulla musiikkia, mutta sen jälkeen on vain silmää. Joten näet vain erilaisia muotoja muuttamassa ja muodostamassa erilaisia patteja, mutta todennäköisesti voit nähdä nämä luokat menemään, ja sitten voit kuulla ne jäämään vettä. Luulen, että jotkut jäävät marinaan. Tämän alueen ympärillä on ruotsalaiset, hotellit, muutamia museoita.

Se on tietenkin turistikenttä, ja Vivid on aika, jossa moni tulee. Mielestäni on paljon markkinointia Suomessa, joten suuria yleisöjä, jotka tulevat nähdä erilaisia ilmaisuja. Mutta drone-ohjelma aloittiin vuonna 2024, ja se on tietenkin yksi suurimmista tehtävistä. Se on tietenkin yksi vihreimmistä puhuttuista tapahtumista Vividin kanssa. Kyllä, ja oli vielä muutama ilmaisu, mutta ne ovat nyt loppuneet.

Katie Watson, Sydney.

But what does this signal about Australian politics? The BBC's Katie Watson, who is in Sydney, spoke to Lise Doucette. I think there's a growing frustration with the traditional parties here in Australia. There's a cost of living crisis. That's something that people talk about a lot, the high cost of housing. And I think that's driven people to look for other alternatives. I mean, we've seen it in other parts of the world. Australia is no exception.

I mean, that's what the candidate called it. It's not going to change anything in terms of the Labour government's vast majority, but it's also been the first kind of federal test of One Nation support. So back in March, when South Australia had state elections, it recorded the second highest number of votes out of any political party. So Labour won, that was clear, but it was its best ever electoral performance. So clearly there's a move there.

Kiitos.

I was talking to many analysts who say that helps make Australia much more kind of central. And the fact that there's compulsory voting means that they don't have the swings kind of to extreme left or extreme right that we might have seen in other countries. But that's clearly not true.

How would you describe One Nation? What are some of their defining slogans, policies? Anti-immigration, for sure. Pauline Hansen has talked about how Australia does not want Sharia law. So that's very clear and that's very difficult right now because of what happened back in December with the terrible shooting at Bondi Beach at a Hanukkah event, which was Australia's worst terrorist attack ever.

It's a difficult time for Australia and I think that's perhaps made people a bit more on edge. So perhaps there's an element of what Pauline Hansen is talking about, making people listen more. For a long time she didn't gain so much traction, but she's clearly resonating. She's a right-wing populist and anti-immigration is pretty much her strongest political argument.

When I speak to people in Australia after Bondi as well, and I was at the hearing for a royal commission on antisemitism, so many people talk about how Australia is such a great multicultural country. But being here for the last few years, I feel that that pride in multiculturalism is being tested, that it makes it more difficult for politicians to read the room or they read the environment, especially after what happened in December. Katie Watson in Sydney in Australia.

First, here's our correspondent Katie Watson in Doha in Qatar on the latest there and across the UAE. Kuwait had a few hits overnight early this morning. The Ministry of Electricity and Water said a power and water desalination plant was attacked. There was material damage to some components.

They also had an attack on a key oil refinery, Mina al-Ahmadi. It's one of the largest in the Middle East. It has a capacity of about 350,000 barrels of oil a day. It's also been targeted before, and that's just Kuwait. There were alarms that went off in the UAE and Bahrain, an attack in the UAE on a gas facility. So clearly what we're seeing and continue to see is this retaliation by Iran, and the Gulf continues to feel those effects.

Yes, the Gulf Nations have warned Iran against targeting water plants, as you mentioned there. Is there a sense of growing anger in the region? Certainly, I mean, I think there's frustration. Nobody, no authorities really speak publicly, but there is a sense of wanting, obviously, this war to be over, but wanting the threat of Iran to be over. I was talking to some Qatari officials earlier this week who made clear that attacks on civilian infrastructure, such as desalination...

This is a huge threat to the region. This is a part of the world that 90% of drinking water roughly comes from desalinated water. So if you don't have access to that, then it makes the region pretty unlivable pretty quickly. And that is a concern here, certainly. And what about the mood where you are, Katie? How much is normal life being affected? Have you been able to gauge a sense of how people are feeling?