7NEWS live updates: Hunt for arsonist after national park fire, Sydney power outage

That’s it for our morning news coverage. Thank you for joining us, we’ll jump back on if anything breaks this afternoon.

People have been told to avoid an area of Melbourne’s CBD as police negotiate with a man.

The incident is unfolding at an address on Little Lonsdale St.

Little Lonsdale is currently closed to pedestrians between Exhibition and Russell Streets.

“Police are encouraging people to avoid the area,” Victoria Police said.

“More information will be provided when operationally appropriate to do so.”

There is not believed to be any risk to the community.

Police have released Air Wing vision of a raging fire at a national park in Queensland.

A blaze ​erupted at Burleigh Heads National Park​ about 10.25pm on Tuesday.

Firefighters were able to let the blaze die down on its own when it ran out of fuel.

Queensland Police Air Wing vision shows the verocity of the fire which burnt not far from homes.

The fire destroyed a significant section of the park, police said.

“The fire consumed most of the eastern and north-eastern side of Burleigh Headlands National Park before it burnt-out of its own accord, under the supervision of emergency services,” police said.

No one was injured and no homes were affected.

The walking-track around the headland has been closed to members of the public.

The blaze is being treated as suspicious, with video emerging of a young person waving around a flaming branch before the fire started.

Investigations are ongoing.

Anyone with any information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Thousands of homes are without power and traffic lights are down in Sydney’s northwest due to an unplanned outage.

According to Ausnet over 48,000 customers have been impacted.

A number of traffic lights are blacked out in Hornsby, Wahroonga and surrounding areas.

Motorists have been warned to slow down in the area

The suburbs impacted in Sydney’s northwest include: Blakehurst, Belmont North, Asquith, Beecroft, Carlingford, Castle Hill, Cheltenham, Cherrybrook, Dural, Eastwood, Epping, Hornsby, Hornsby Heights, Mount Colah, Normanhurst, North Wahroonga, Pennant Hills, Thornleigh, Turramurra, Wahroonga, Waitara, West Pennant Hills, Westleigh.

The outage was the a result of fallen power lines along Excelsior Rd in Mount Colah, an Ausgrid spokesperson said.

“The exact cause of the fallen lines is being investigated, however our priority at this time is for emergency crews to restore power to our customers as safely and as soon as possible,” they said.

“Restoration is expected to take approximately 2-3 hours.”

A protestor has been arrested following a stand-off with police on a stationary train in Melbourne’s west.

The woman climbed up onto the train on Maribyrnong St in Footscray about 7.30am on Wednesday.

She was seen spray painting the words “resist or die” on the top of the train.

Police have since managed to get the woman down and she has been arrested.

A NSW Police officer has been charged with several domestic violence offences following two incidents while he was off-duty.

The 44-year-old man allegedly verbally intimidated a woman at a home in April 2024 while off-duty.

He also allegedly assaulted two children at the same home sometime between August and September that same year.

Following investigations the man was served a Court Attendance Notice on Tuesday for two counts of common assault (DV) and stalk/intimidate intend fear physical etc harm (domestic).

He is due to appear at Armidale Local Court in October.

“The officer remains employed by the force on a risk management plan.

A childcare worker has been charged with assaulting a child who suffered a head injury.

The alleged assault occured on Thursday, August 7 at a childcare centre on Ingersole Drive in Kelso, near Bathurst in NSW, shortly after 3pm.

Police say a 24-year-old staff member allegedly forced a four-year-old child onto a bed, causing the child to hit their head on the edge of the bed.

The child suffered a 2cm laceration as a result.

Following investigations the woman as arrested at a home in Kelso about 3.15pm on Tuesday.

She was charged with reckless wounding and granted conditional bail to appear at Bathurst Local Court in October.

Police are currently trying to negotiate with a woman standing on top of a stationary freight train in Melbourne’s west.

It’s believed the woman climbed up onto the train on Maribyrnong St in Footscray about 7.30am on Wednesday as part of a protest.

The woman could be seen spray painting the words “resist or die” on the top of the train.

Search and Rescue officers will be attending the scene to help.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at an Australian reporter during a heated exchange at the White House, telling the journalist he was “hurting Australia” and that he would tell Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about it in their next visit.

ABC journalist John Lyons was on the White House lawn as Trump took questions ahead of his visit to the United Kingdom when Lyons asked the president questions regarding his business dealings.

“Is it appropriate, President Trump, that a president in office should be engaged in so much business activity?” Lyons said.

Trump said he was “really not” engaged with the businesses because “my kids are running the business”.

The president went on to ask the Washington-based journalist where he was from.

“In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump said.

“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon.

“I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”

Read the full story here.

Prosecutors in the US state of Utah have formally charged a suspect in conservative activist ​​Charlie Kirk’s assassination​​ with aggravated murder and intend to seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of firing the single rifle shot from a rooftop sniper’s nest that pierced Kirk’s neck last Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, about 65km south of Salt Lake City.

Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray said at a press conference that his office had filed seven counts against Robinson in all, including obstruction of justice for disposing of evidence and witness tampering for directly his roommate to delete texts.

Gray said he had made the decision to seek the death penalty “independently, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime”.

Read the full story ​​here​​.