NEWS RECAP: Synagogue attack deemed terrorism, Assad’s falling and 2024 declared hottest year on record

After a huge day in news, both locally and internationally, we’re closing down our live coverage.

Scroll through the posts below to check out the day’s news as it happened, and stay tuned to The Nightly for all the latest throughout the night.

Thanks for joining us.

In news that may be divisive for some, 2024 has been declared the hottest on record by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The data, which covers January to November inclusive, shows that we’ve exceeded the warming limit that countries had pledged to try and avoid in the Paris Agreement negotiated in 2015.

The previous hottest year on record was 2023.

Full report here.

JUST IN: There’s been a significant development in the investigation into the synagogue terror attack in Melbourne.

This from Ellen Ransley in Canberra:

A special Australian Federal Police taskforce has been established specifically focused on anti-Semitism, after authorities officially determined the early morning firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue officially as a terror investigation.

Full story here.

The rapid fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, coming hard on devastating losses suffered by Hezbollah, has dealt a serious blow to Iran’s “axis of resistance,” a central pillar of Tehran’s foreign policy, forged over decades.

Through Syria’s 13-year civil war, Iran devoted a great deal of blood and treasure to propping up the Assad regime, only to watch its investment fail in a matter of days as city after city fell to Syrian rebels.

But Tehran hasn’t only lost a client; it has seen its ability to project power, key to its own security, upended.

Hezbollah, the militant group whose power once rivalled that of regional armies, suffered a humiliating defeat to Israel last month and was counting on Iranian support to rebuild.

“The resistance front has had a really hard year,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged Sunday in an interview on Iranian state television.

But he said they had outperformed expectations and cited continued Hamas attacks on Israel.

“Nobody could have predicted that the front could be so strong.”

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The early morning firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s southeast is now officially being investigated as a terrorism incident, after authorities determined it was likely “a politically motivated attack”.

Congregants at the Ripponlea synagogue were forced to flee shortly after 4am on Friday morning after the building went up in flames, resulting in wide-spread damage.

While the Prime Minister, Opposition Leader and Victorian Premier had all labelled the attack as an act of terrorism in the wake of the incident, the Australian Federal Police met with Victoria Police to determine whether to formally declare it as such.

Victoria Police commissioner Shane Patton said the plethora of evidence and intelligence had pointed towards terrorism.

Police are pursuing three suspects, and having dubbed it a likely terror attack will have new powers as part of their investigation.

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Peter Dutton has vowed to create a dedicated anti-Semitism taskforce and deport anti-Semitic migrants, as the political fallout from Friday’s arson attack at a Melbourne synagogue continues.

The Opposition Leader said the Prime Minister had been weak on anti-Semitism since October 7, 2023, which had led to such a violent attack. He vowed to do better by the Jewish community if the Coalition won the next election.

“A Dutton Coalition government will act from day one to fix Labor’s law enforcement crisis through a number of policy measures,” he announced on Monday morning.

He announced a special taskforce would be led by the AFP, ASIO, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and AUSTRAC, and would be directed to refer any visa holders involved in acts of anti-Semitism for immediate cancellation and deportation.

He also said a new ministerial direction would be issued to the AFP to prioritise addressing anti-Semitism, including any outstanding and unsolved crimes against the Jewish community since October 6, 2023, including doxxing, public display of terrorist symbols, incitement and harassment.

“This would include re-evaluation of any decisions to not proceed with charges for these offences,” Mr Dutton said.

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ANZ announced on Monday that Nuno Matos will take the role of chief executive from July 3, 2025.

Mr Matos has worked across retail, commercial and wholesale banking for over 30 years, most recently as chief executive of wealth and personal banking at HSBC.

In that role, he oversaw 87,000 employees who served around 40 million customers across 35 markets.

Mr Matos said: “I’ve long admired ANZ, particularly under the stewardship of Shayne, and it’s an honour to have been chosen by the Board to lead the next phase of ANZ’s evolution.

“My initial focus will be to build on the work already underway and ensure all our stakeholders get even better value from their relationship with ANZ.”

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Shayne Elliott, the chief executive of Australia and New Zealand Bank has resigned after nine years in his role.

The chief executive joined ANZ in 2009 and has worked as a global managing director and chief financial officer before his appointment as chief executive in 2015.

“Leading ANZ over the last nine years has been the highlight of my career,” Mr Elliot said.

“I’m proud to be leaving the bank in such a strong position, particularly the work we have done to simplify the business, transforming institutional into one of the world’s best and preparing our retail bank for the future.

“The recent Suncorp Bank acquisition will also benefit ANZ for years to come.”

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The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed forces conducted “dozens of precision air strikes” targetting known ISIS camps in Syria.

“The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, in order to prevent the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria,” CENTCOM wrote on X.

“The operation struck over 75 targets using multiple U.S. Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s.

“Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Victorian and federal police would meet on Monday to discuss what motivated the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue and whether or not it could be classified as a terrorism incident.

“If you want my personal view, quite clearly, terrorism is something that is aimed at creating fear in the community,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Perth on Sunday.

“And the atrocities that occurred at the synagogue in Melbourne clearly were designed to create fear in the community, and therefore, from my personal perspective, certainly fulfil that definition of terrorism.”

Victoria Police says it has been working with Australian Federal Police since the investigation began, with the organisations to make further assessments on Monday.

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