MP Threatened, Deadly Tibet Earthquake, James Bond Auditions.

This is Ten's Late News with all the news you need this Friday. Tonight, home but not free. Australian grandmother Donna Nelson returns to Perth from Japan, but despite being the victim of an online love scam, she will remain behind bars. Developing now, Israel orders its army to prepare to lock down the West Bank after claiming to have stopped a terror attack. Bracing for impact, Taiwan all but shuts down as Typhoon Champy zeroes in. A major breakthrough in the fight against melanoma. How Aussie researchers are leading the charge. Also tonight, running into trouble. An athlete cops a big ban over a fake prescription from a made-up clinic. In sports tonight, a history-making cliff diver takes the term ice plunge to new heights. Watch your head. They may be from out of this world, but experts warn the risk of space junk falling back down to Earth is growing at speed. And are these the last men standing in the race to become the next Bond? James Bond. Welcome to Ten's Late News with Taylor Ryan. Good evening. After almost four years locked up in a Japanese jail cell, Perth grandmother Donna Nelson is back on home soil tonight. But that doesn't mean she gets to walk free after being duped into becoming a drug mule. Keeley Lynch joins me now with the latest. Keeley, what happens to Donna now? Taylor, Donna Nelson is tonight in Bandyup Women's Prison here in Perth, where she'll serve out the rest of her sentence. The grandmother touched down in WA last night after she was secretly driven from Japan's largest women's prison in Tochigi early yesterday morning before boarding a flight. It comes after she was arrested in Japan back in 2023 with nearly two kilograms of meth hidden in her suitcase, which she had taken there from Laos. It's understood she had fallen victim to a Nigerian love scammer, believing the luggage she was delivering was for her fiancé, but the grandmother never got to see him. She then faced trial in Japan and was sentenced to six years jail before applying for an international transfer back to Perth. 10 News contacted Donna Nelson's daughter earlier who says she was able to see her mother today. She said that she is doing as well as you can imagine and the family have had a massive weight lifted off their shoulders and now have the peace of having their mum back home close to them. Miss Nelson has always maintained she was tricked by the romance scam and had no idea there were drugs in her suitcase. Taylor. Thank you, Keely. Candles have been lit across the country and the world tonight. in support of Helen Haynes. But as the MP fights for her life, police are investigating a disturbing new theory behind the alleged attack. Rebecca Powell is live in Melbourne tonight. Bec, the outpouring of love has been extraordinary. It really has, Taylor. From Thailand to Logan in Queensland and Lismore on the New South Wales north coast. People lighting candles, sharing photographs and sending their love to a woman many have never even met. And back home in Wangaratta tonight, large numbers gathered at the precinct restaurant. Many wearing Helen's signature orange, sharing memories and willing their local MP home. But while Helen remains critical at the Alfred Hospital, the investigation has taken another turn. Police now examining whether accused attacker Brendan Nugent targeted Helen to get back at his own family. His father and stepmother have been close friends with the MP for 20 years. Also under scrutiny, complaints from Nugent's neighbours, including concerns about his mental health and how police responded. It's an absolute tragic circumstance. As we know, Helen was loved in the community, still is loved and cherished. Yes, it is. Yes. And it sounds like a cliche, but every line of inquiry is open. Every action is under review. We can't really talk about some of those things because he is now before the court. And, Taylor, as we head into the weekend, perhaps the most remarkable show of support yet. Phil's simple request for donations instead of flowers has now raised more than $900,000 for Save the Children, nearing that million-dollar mark. And while those candles will eventually burn out, the generosity shown in Helen's name will make a difference to children's lives for years to come. Yes, it will. Thank you, Bec. The Federal Sports Minister has temporarily closed her Brisbane office after her staff were allegedly threatened. Jack Morgan joins us now. Jack, police arrested a woman outside the office of Annika Wells. Yes, they have, Taylor. The 47-year-old was outside the office with a children's toy foam gun, allegedly behaving in a threatening manner towards staff. Police have since charged the woman with public nuisance. The Brisbane office will remain closed until security improvements are made. It comes amid heightened threats to politicians, forcing some to up their security. In a statement, Annika Wells says her staff deserve to feel safe at work and this kind of behaviour is unacceptable and they'll reopen by next Monday. It's not the first time the Lilly MP has been threatened. A man was charged last December when he sent emails allegedly threatening to kill her. Thank you for the update, Jack. The court has heard accused killer cop Bolimar Condon confessed to a friend, I've killed people, and made a gesture mimicking a gun. The friend said he was in shock and didn't know what to do, spending several hours with Lamar Condon in the days after his alleged crimes. This friend of Bolimar Condon was with the alleged killer cop when he bought one of the surfboard bags used to dispose of the bodies of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. And he told the Supreme Court today it was he to whom the accused turned to in the hours after the alleged murders. The friend, who can't be identified for legal reasons, says Lamar Condon called him saying he was outside his work and that he needed to speak to him. He said, The friend testified he asked how, saying Lamar Condon made a gesture with his fingers indicating a firearm and said pew pew. He said I shot the first one through the head and the second one through the door. The friend also said Lamar Condon later on FaceTime tried to pass it off as a joke. Did you like my Oscar performance? To which the friend replied that's not a joke you're mentally with me. He says the accused then told him okay it is real but I don't want you to tell anyone. The witness testified he was in shock and didn't know what to do with the information. He also told the court that when he had dinner with Lamar Condon the night after the alleged murders, the accused killer cop told him his plan for disposing of the bodies. He said that he was going to put them in the water and fill the bags up with cement to weigh them down. The witness had earlier testified he and Lamar Condon, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, had holidayed in Bali over Christmas in 2023 where the accused tried to find a gun shop to buy a silencer and that when they got back, he was taken to the national park where Lamar Condon fired his police pistol from inside a paper bag before asking, would you hear this in a house? Matt Cannellan, 10 News. In some developing news tonight, Israel has ordered the West Bank be locked down following a shooting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims Israeli defence forces prevented a major attack when soldiers came under fire near the city of Hebron. The IDF says it shot and killed two people it believes were responsible. But exactly who was behind the shooting remains unclear and details are still emerging. Netanyahu, who is running for re-election next week, has cancelled all political meetings until further notice. A magnitude 7 earthquake has killed more than a dozen people and destroyed hundreds of homes in China's Tibet region. The search and rescue effort is continuing tonight while crews have been deployed to help house those who have been left without shelter. A deafening roar in Nanchu City that soon proved deadly. The magnitude 7 earthquake shattering the night in Tibet, the strongest to strike China in almost three years. the disaster triggered a frantic rescue effort 16 people have died and more than 60 injured numbers that could still rise as crews sift through the rubble more than 300 homes flattened while hundreds of police and rescue workers have been mobilized but before they arrived residents were left to dig out each other more than 3 000 tents dot the disaster zone to shelter those now homeless. Blankets laid out in a middle school playground as locals were forced to sleep in temperatures that dropped well below zero. As day broke, the damage was made clear. The power supply has been cut off while the area has trembled under more than 400 aftershocks so far. Right now, the mammoth effort continues. Hannah Stewart, 10 News. Overseas now, and one person is dead and more than 100 injured. Typhoon Champy bears down off the coast of Taiwan and Japan. 8,400 homes are without power in Okinawa, as winds reach nearly 300 kilometres an hour and six-metre swells lash the region. More than 260 domestic flights to Taiwan have been cancelled, along with nearly 670 international flights. Schools have been closed and more than 2,600 people evacuated from mountainous areas as a precaution. The threat of severe weather continues to loom large over southeast Queensland, a day after record-breaking falls flooded communities in Caboolture. Despite the rain easing significantly, roads have been cut off and the danger posed by the torrential downpour remains. Young's crossing in Petrie swallowed. It took just a day of downpour to block the thoroughfare. It was pretty bad. We were kind of blocked in from all directions. 300mm of rain at the peak, another 40 overnight. Wappa Dam on the Sunshine Coast is a roaring flood. Millions of litres of water surging over the spillway, flooding into the Maroochy and Mooloolah Rivers. Releases too from North Pine Dam, adding to the water level rises further downstream. Not just fears of further flooding ahead, but official warnings too. There's 72 hours of volatile weather on the way. The state will see further rounds of showers and thunderstorms into the weekend and early part of next week. The water levels are so high, it could take days in some of the lower-lying areas for it to go down and further rain could delay that even more. Some schools remained closed in the Caboolture region today as tow truck operators began retrieving the long list of wrecked vehicles lost in the disaster zone. It's just a tow strap, hook it up, hook it up to their car, pull them out nice and easy. Half a kilometre downstream from a causeway, three tonnes of Dodge Ram sits facing the current. This was the car washed away from underneath a driver awaiting rescue yesterday. It's happened at another crossing back that way. There was a guy stuck, the same thing. He was on the roof and then he got rescued by swift water. Then the car went down as well. I think it might still be further downriver. The vehicle will be winched out of the waterway but not until the threat of more river rises ends. Yesterday, Georgie's home was an island. Today, she's able to walk through it. So we couldn't get out, so the water would have been waist deep or higher to get from the house to get out to the road. So, yeah, definitely get stuck here when it floods. left to scrape away what the flood brought with it. Christina Puljak, 10 News. A fake prescription and a made-up doctor's clinic are at the centre of an anti-doping investigation that's seen an elite marathon runner banned for six years. Ethiopian athlete Ruti Agar has achieved the highest of highs, winning the Tokyo Marathon in 2019 and finishing second three times at other world majors. Earlier this year, the 32-year-old won a half marathon in China and was tested by the Athletics Integrity Unit, which reported she returned a positive result for a banned substance known as methylprednisolone. Ranked 11th in the world at the time, Agar attempted to explain the result and claimed she'd been prescribed a substance by a doctor to treat knee pain with documentation to support her claim. But after an investigation, the AIU said the name of the clinic on the document didn't exist and the person who signed the prescription was actually a relative who was not a registered doctor. Agar has now been banned for six years for using the substance and tampering with the anti-doping process meaning she won't compete again until she's 38. Five years since we last saw 007 on our screens the hunt for the new James Bond might finally be nearing its end. A number of reports suggest this very small group of actors will screen test as part of final auditions for the role to see if they're the best fit to fill the shoes vacated by Daniel Craig. Now, among the contenders, British actor Callum Turner, BAFTA award winner Jack Loudon and Josh O'Connor, who played a young King Charles in the Netflix series The Crown. Despite the rumours, Aussie Jacob Elordi isn't thought to be among the finalists. Now, there's no strict timeline for a Bond reveal, but the latest instalment of the 007 franchise is expected sometime in 2028. Stay with us. Up next, the mega project with an even bigger price tag. What's behind the jaw-dropping cost blowout to the Snowy 2.0 project? A new era for cancer treatment, the breakthrough vaccine being developed by an Aussie scientist. And the century-old mystery behind Van Gogh's The Starry Night finally unravelled. The Federal Opposition is calling on Chris Bowen to resign as Energy Minister. After revelations, the Snowy 2.0 project has blown out in cost and timeline. When it was originally announced in 2017, it was budgeted at $2 billion. It is now expected to cost up to $25 billion. dollars a massive project with a massive price tag yes this is unwelcome news um and obviously we wish this we wish the project was being delivered uh more cheaply when Snowy 2.0 was first announced by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 it was expected to start operating in 2021 with a 2 billion dollar price tag that was pushed out to 2027 at 12 billion following a review, but now it's not expected to work until 2029 at a cost of up to $25 billion. All the way through this project, we've seen the increasing complexity and challenges that perhaps weren't seen before. Snowy Hydro's had its fair share of setbacks over the years, from safety concerns to contract disputes, even tunnel-boring machines getting stuck underground. It's Chris Bowen who should apologise to the Australian taxpayers. It's Chris Bowen who should do the right thing and resign. We're building a power station the size of Sydney Opera House, a kilometre underground, 40 kilometres worth of tunnelling through very difficult terrain. Labor says that difficult terrain wasn't accounted for by the previous coalition government and the energy minister who ultimately greenlit the project, Angus Taylor. I'll tell you what happened. Chris Bowen took over and everything that bloke touches turns to custard. No engineering done over the period of the Morrison and Turnbull governments to make sure that there were proper costings. Despite the huge price tag, Snowy 2.0 is expected to reduce wholesale energy costs by just $7 billion in the first 50 years of operation, raising questions about whether or not the project's even worth it anymore. This project's designed for 150 years. It's truly a generational investment. but no guarantees there won't be future blowouts. Hansel Dew, 10 News. Victoria's Phillip Island has come alive for day one of the final Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the iconic circuit. Big crowds soaked up the sunshine ahead of what's set to be an emotional weekend for locals. One final roar of the bikes at Phillip Island. Thousands flocking into the iconic circuit for day one of action on the track. The end of an era for locals who made the most of their free entry Friday. I've been coming here a little bit, so, yeah, it's a big tourist attraction, so I'd be, yeah, pretty sad. Others came from far and wide, finally following through on those long-held plans to visit. All the way down from Holland. Fantastic. Did you make a point of coming here because it's the last one? Yeah, it was always a dream to visit the island. Yeah, this is the last one, so the last chance to do it. Just spending time with my dad, it's been a bucket list thing. We've been talking about this for years, so it's been amazing. Familiar faces spilling into the campgrounds, which are set to get even busier come the weekend. It's been here pretty much every one, every race. We had the pool table and the rest of it, but we didn't bring it this year. Pretty sad to see it go. Yeah, real sad. Here to party and have a good time. Plenty of colour in and around the paddock, and those who didn't come quite as prepared went and stocked up. I've got Miller, I've got Aprilia, and then Phillip Island last year, so it's a must. First time here and the last time for me. She surprised me with this trip, my birthday, so brought my family along, so it was a nice surprise, yeah. Jack Miller merch flying off the shelves and the Aussie was flying on the track early too, setting the fastest time in first practice before he crashed out. He wasn't the only Aussie to hit the circuit, a Wallaby forcing a halt in practice too, the island now gearing up for its second last day of Grand Prix racing. Sam Mills, 10 News. It's one of the most famous paintings in history and now scientists believe they've cracked a more than 130-year-old mystery surrounding Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. Long assumed to have been painted from his vivid imagination, in mid-June 1889, a new study suggests it was inspired by the pre-dawn sky seen from his asylum window in southern France on July 22nd of that year. To pinpoint when he created the swirling masterpiece, South Korean researchers used forensic astronomy to turn back the clock on the night sky. The biggest clue was the moon, which in mid-June would have been more than half full, nothing like the thin crescent shape that was painted by Van Gogh. By cross-referencing star simulations, 19th century weather patterns, And the artist's own notes, the team found only one morning where the crescent moon, a blazing Venus and the Taurus star cluster all aligned perfectly. And while the debate over whether it was painted on July 22 or another date continues, the findings prove the masterpiece isn't just pure fantasy, but showing the troubled painter was watching the real night sky very closely. Still to come on 10's late news, look out below how falling space junk is becoming a growing danger to us on the ground. And the bus ride from hell while white people are paying to be attacked by zombies. We have the highest rates of melanoma in the world, but a treatment breakthrough could give patients a better shot at survival. A world-first custom cancer vaccine is proving very effective in a major study being led by a renowned Australian scientist. An inflamed ear would lead to a devastating diagnosis for Tony Hunt, melanoma. And it had already spread. But his doctors had an idea, telling him... We can put you in this clinical drug trial that's brand new and real cutting edge. testing a tailor-made vaccine paired with immunotherapy drugs. Two years later, the results are in. This truly is a breakthrough for melanoma. Led by 2024 Australian of the Year Professor Georgina Long, the global study of more than 1,000 melanoma patients found the vaccine reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 42%, compared to those who only had the immunotherapy medication. This is a completely new way of treating cancer using the immune system. One that uses the same mRNA foundation behind the COVID-19 vaccines. It could be approved for use internationally within two years and in Australia after that. So how does it work? Put simply, it's like giving your immune system a most wanted poster for cancer. Every tumour has its own unique fingerprint, so scientists first collect samples of the tumour and healthy tissue and then identify the differences between those cells known as neoantigens. Then they design a personalised vaccine that stimulates the immune system to target them. It's produced, in this case, by Moderna and Merck and administered to the patient, a process that currently takes four to six weeks. That's going to be a challenge to scale to global populations. So the focus now is making these vaccines faster and finding out which other cancers they could treat to give even more people a fighting chance. Talila Thompson, 10 News. Space junk discoveries are becoming increasingly common on the ground, meaning the likelihood of someone being killed by debris re-entering the atmosphere is higher. In the European Space Agency's assessment published last month, It highlighted the high re-entry rate of defunct satellites and rockets and a, quote, growing casualty risk on the ground. The agency said on average there were more than three re-entries per day in 2025 and in just the past few days, two chunks of suspected rocket debris have been discovered on two separate continents. A farmer in rural Minnesota discovered a strange metallic object over three metres wide in his cornfield. Just days later, on the other side of the world, workers at a palm oil plantation in Borneo found pieces of debris, each the size of a car. The night before, local residents reported they heard a loud bang. Some witnessed a blazing fireball streak across the sky. The pieces have since been identified as parts of a Chinese rocket which launched in September. The European Space Agency says space activities are growing at a remarkable pace, but controlled re-entries still outnumber uncontrolled ones, highlighting progress in responsible space operations. And so while the chances of someone being killed by falling space junk remains low in comparison to your usual everyday risks, it is an increasing risk that will grow amid more rocket launches and satellites. Speaking of space, Australia is one step closer to a front row seat, with the federal government confirming it's made a formal offer to send Adelaide astronaut Catherine Ben-El-Peg to the International Space Station. Both publicly and privately funded, it's not yet clear how much the offer is worth, but it's understood it will fall short of the $100 million needed to secure a seat on board the European Space Agency's next mission. That is a very, very expensive project. To put an extraordinary Australian who has qualified as an astronaut into space, We have to balance the scale of that effort with the other fiscal priorities that government will have. Ben-El Pegg, who is this year's Australian of the Year, would become the first astronaut to represent Australia in a space agency mission if the European organisation accepts the offer. You may have heard of the walking dead, but these zombies in South Korea have upgraded to taking the bus. The terrifying Halloween stunt is part of a special bus tour through Seoul for horror movie fans, and tours have already sold out. The nightmare on wheels will be running until the end of the month. Parts of Queensland are preparing for more wet weather tonight on top of what has already been record-breaking rain. Here's Josh Holt. Good evening. To say it's been a wet week through south-east Queensland is a bit of an understatement. In fact, we have seen records for Nambour for the month of October has now seen over 400 millimetres. That is a new record for the month as we take a look at the current conditions across the eastern seaboard. So, again, we've got that cloud cover hovering over northeast New South Wales today, southeast Queensland and further north up around parts of the Capricornia and Central Coast. And you will see those thunderstorms exploding across inland parts of Queensland this afternoon too. But having a look at the southeast radar, this is where we have seen most of the rain over the past few days. The Sunshine Coast, as mentioned, being one of the hotspots, along with the northern part to Brisbane, also seeing some heavy falls. I'll just take you through the three-day totals. Sheepstation Creek seeing 343 millimetres into the rain gauge. Caboolture, which is just north of Brisbane, seeing 339. Narangbar as well, close by to Caboolture, 317 millimetres. And Round Mount Reservoir there seeing 311. So extraordinary stuff. We saw those three-hour rain rates yesterday around about 170 millimetres falling in just a three-hour period. And let me tell you, rainfall in Australia doesn't get too much heavier than that. So that high-pressure system slowly but surely starting to edge away from Australia off towards New Zealand. However, we've still got showers and thunderstorms expected through Queensland over the weekend. And we are expecting our next weather system as well to rock on through. It'll come in the form of a cold front and a trough of low pressure. And again, we'll see some widespread showers and thunderstorms across South Australia Saturday. Across areas of Victoria and New South Wales, some of those thunderstorms will have the potential to be severe and produce very heavy rainfall in short periods of time. The atmosphere at the moment, or the lower part of the atmosphere, is just loaded with moisture. So those thunderstorms can tap into that moisture and produce that heavy rainfall very, very quickly indeed. Showers persisting for Brisbane tomorrow, 25 at the top. Should be a pretty good one for Sydney, 26 degrees with partly cloudy skies. Showers for Melbourne, we're looking at a storm for Adelaide there with 25 and a shower or two for Perth hitting Eta. A priceless historic globe used by President Dwight Eisenhower to plot the D-Day landings has been broken after staff working for current Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth tried to move it into his office at his request. US officials confirmed the incident happened in February. The globe was being kept in a senior army office at the Pentagon. It's now being repaired. And finally tonight, after a vote of more than 20,000 people, a baby red panda has finally been named. Meet Dolly, after the late legend herself, Dolly Parton, with zookeepers saying her bold and feisty personality fits the name perfectly. They also say she's the most vocal of the red panda cubs and her cute little face will be able to be admired even outside of the hours of 9 to 5. And that's all the news you need this Friday. I'm Taylor Ryan, thanks for joining us on Ten's Late News, we hope you have a great weekend