Former Nationals leader and Riverina MP Michael McCormack was just on ABC News 24, where he was asked about saying he was “ambitious” for Nationals leader David Littleproud in an interview this morning.

If that sounds familiar, this is why.

Here was McCormack’s exchange with host Isobel Roe just now.

Are you sounding the death knell there for his leadership [in making that statement]?”

No, no it was tongue in cheek. I’m a student of political history. I just, just answered the question, I am ambitious for David, want the Nationals to be the best they can be. He is our leader and I support in.”

You’re the former Deputy Prime Minister, you can’t say something like that without setting off alarm bells. It is surely intentional. What did you mean by that?”

You can’t always be playing straight, I’d just watched Matt’s Thistlethwaite’s interview, just read off the Labor’s talking points, sometimes you’ve just got to stray a little bit and say a few things that you actually mean and actually mean to say...”

So what did you mean by saying that particularly poignant phrase which two days later and the leadership of a Prime Minister?”

I’m not planning to roll David any time soon.”

“You’re not going to put a redline through your name forever.”

He also said he hadn’t spoken to Barnaby Joyce, after Joyce said he would back McCormack if the latter sought Littleproud’s job.

Later McCormack was asked if Littleproud’s leadership was tenable after the week he’s had in taking the Nationals out of the Coalition (negotiations are continuing to restore that relationship).

McCormack’s answer: “Well, the party room will decide that. I haven’t heard anybody sort of - any murmurings, you know, being a spill motion.”

You still only need one hand to count the vote margin in on Sydney’s north shore.

As at 4pm, teal candidate Nicolette Boele leads Liberal Giselle Kapterian by three votes.

In , northern Melbourne, Independent Carly Moore has moved into second place in the four-horse race between Labor, Liberal and two independents, with 86 per cent of the vote counted.

ABC Election analyst Antony Green was just on ABC News 24, where he was asked about what could happen next in close seats.

“[In Bradfield] they’re doing the distribution of preferences, the current gap is three or four votes, it is one here, one vote there,” he said.

“Once this count is completed, they will have a final determined margin – and it will be under 100 votes, almost certainly – and then they will do a complete recount, they will count every vote again, including all of the first preferences for Kapterian and Boele.

“In this distribution of preferences, they don’t recount those votes, they only do the distribution of everybody else. The full recount will look at every ballot paper, every informal ballot paper. At the end of the recounts and distribution of preferences after the recount, they will declare a winner.

“Once they have declared a winner that winner can sit in parliament, and it is a matter for the losing candidate to challenge that in the Court of Disputed Returns.”

The question of whether to request a recount is also one being considered by teal MP Zoe Daniel, after Tim Wilson was declared the winner earlier this week.

The US State Department says it will impose sanctions on Sudan after determining it used chemical weapons in 2024, according to a statement.

Those sanctions will include limits on US exports and US government lines of credit and will take effect around June 6 after public notification.

For the past two years, the Sudanese government and its army have been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which controls about half the country.

The war erupted from a power struggle between the army and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule and free elections.

It has since led to 13 million people being displaced – including more than 1200 that have fled to Australia, according to the Refugee Council of Australia – and thousands killed. It remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

New Zealand has slashed foreign aid to its lowest level in four years, with specific cuts to climate finance, in a move decried by the international development sector as a broken promise.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis unveiled the coalition government’s second budget on Thursday, with a headline deficit of $NZ14.7 billion ($13.5 billion).

Budget documents show official development assistance (ODA) spending dropping from $NZ1.1 billion last year to $NZ999 million this year.

Terence Wood, a fellow at the Development Policy Centre at the Australian national University, called the new budget a “grim tale”.

“When inflation is taken into account, by 2026/27 New Zealand aid will have fallen to 2019 levels, and it will have done so over a period when – thanks to climate change, illness and war – the need for aid has been rising fast,” he wrote.

Willis told parliament Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters had argued for more aid.

Peters was in Adelaide today to meet Australian counterpart Penny Wong.

Here’s the latest as of 3pm Friday, courtesy of our reporters in NSW:

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Four people have died, one person is missing, and an estimated 50,000 people have been isolated as northern NSW grapples with record-breaking rainfall and unprecedented flooding that is wreaking havoc in the region.

The latest death was a man in his late 70s, whose body was discovered by police north-west of Coffs Harbour early today.

Severe weather warnings have shifted south, with heavy rainfall hitting the Illawarra, South Coast and adjacent inland areas today. There are 36 emergency warnings in place from Newcastle to Coffs Harbour.

Meteorologists are also forecasting severe weather for the Southern Hunter, Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands.

About 9000 people are under evacuation orders.

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It began last year with some optimistic projections.

Climate scientists studying emissions data from China detected a positive signal.

There were signs that the world’s largest climate polluter might have halted the growth of its greenhouse emissions. Perhaps it had even begun to drive them down.

If this was true, it would be a remarkable achievement: China had not been expected to meet this goal until 2030.

Read more from our National Environment and Climate Editor

Australia’s supermarket giants will barter with the competition watchdog on the number of items to be interrogated in court over allegations they misled customers with fake discounts.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched court actions against Coles and Woolworths, alleging they broke consumer law by bumping up prices on certain products for brief periods before lowering them again as part of Woolworths’ “Prices Dropped” and Coles’ “Down Down” promotions.

Those promotional prices - including for dairy, pet food, personal care, coffee, medicine, lollies, cereal and household cleaning products - were lower than during the price bump, but higher than, or the same, as the regular price, the commission alleges.

A Federal Court hearing in Melbourne today heard disagreements over the number of sample products from both supermarkets that would be included as evidence in the trial.

Coles had agreed to 12 products – six chosen by the ACCC, three class products and three of their choosing, barrister Nicholas De Young, KC, told the court.

Woolworths had proposed six products, but barrister Ruth Higgins, SC, told the court the ACCC had submitted 20 on Thursday morning before reducing the number to 12 later.

The consumer watchdog is seeking a significant penalty for the alleged breaches, which they say took place over 15 months.

Coles and Woolworths, which control a combined two-thirds market share, deny the allegations and say the legal cases are misconceived.

Just skipping over to WA for a moment, and this morning protesters, including newly sworn-in Upper House Greens MP Sophie McNeill, blocked the entrance to the US consulate in Perth.

They were protesting the US and Australian government’s role in the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

Just before the protest, graffiti was discovered spray-painted on a door at Parliament House, referencing claims made by United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher in relation to the crisis this week.

There is no suggestion the two events are linked.

McNeill said she did not know anything about the graffiti. She said the consulate protest was an escalation over the dire situation facing Palestinians cut off from aid in the Gaza Strip.

“We wanted to show the US government and send a strong message that we’re not just going to watch when children starve to death,” she said.

Palestinian health authorities said Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza overnight, igniting fires and causing extensive damage.

On Friday (AEST), the UN said aid had been collected from about 90 of the nearly 200 trucks that have entered Gaza since Israel ended its nearly three-month blockade this week.

“The shipments from yesterday [are] limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of Gaza’s 2.1 million people,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.