Australia news live: Covid vaccine doses pile up as hesitancy grows; school strikes for climate | Australia news

A man died last night after being tasered by police, AAP report.

The 27-year-old man in the northern NSW town of Gunnedah died after being tasered by police and losing consciousness.

Police were called to a Herbert Street home about 8pm on Thursday and saw the man, who allegedly became aggressive when addressed.

Pepper spray and a taser were used in a struggle with the man and he lost consciousness. He later died at Gunnedah hospital.

The incident will be independently reviewed, according to NSW police.

Some breaking international news: Israel has agreed to a ceasefire that will halt the now 11-day conflict in Gaza.

More than 230 Palestinians and 12 Israelis have been killed in the 11 days.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just announced that his cabinet had unanimously approved the “mutual and unconditional” ceasefire, which was proposed by Egypt.

Hamas confirmed the ceasefire.

The truce will start at 2am on Friday local time.

Good morning everyone, and welcome back to our Australian news blog.

It’s Friday, and I’m Naaman Zhou here with you.

Today, thousands of school students will take to the strikes to protest government inaction on the climate crisis. It’s the first school climate strike since the start of the pandemic last year.

Protests will take place all over Australia, and here, strikers are particularly protesting the federal government’s new funding for gas-fired coal power.

And in health news, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, says that the government’s mixed-messaging on vaccination is creating hesitancy that will delay Australia’s economic recovery.

“At the moment it’s extremely slow and it’s one of the main things that will hold us back in terms of jobs and in terms of recovery,” she just told the ABC this morning.

Yesterday, federal health minister Greg Hunt had to backtrack comments he made about the AstraZeneca vaccine that were criticised to promoting hesitancy.

And also yesterday, Guardian Australia revealed there were more than 1.5m vaccines sitting unused in clinics across Australia.

Stay with us for all the latest news as it happens.