Battle over nature law reform, cult survivors give testimony, getting up close to snake strikes

Snake strike | A study of 36 species of venomous snake, filming them at 1,000 frames a second as they struck an object made to resemble human skin and muscle, has revealed that snakes sink their fangs into prey as quickly as 60 milliseconds.

Law of nature | The Albanese government may need to cough up major concessions to either the Coalition or the Greens to overhaul federal nature laws after the two parties ruled out supporting the current plan.

Exclusive | About 44,000 Australians who have a debt with Centrelink have overpaid it, some by $20,000 or more, Guardian Australia can reveal. The average amount was about $5,000, said Economic Justice Australia, which obtained the figures from Services Australia.

Spycop ‘deceit’ | A British woman who now lives in Australia has told a public inquiry in London that she was left devastated and deeply mistrustful of police after a Met undercover officer deceived her into an intimate relationship at a young age.

Home win | A Westpac worker’s victory in a court case this week about her right to work from home could lead to more successful challenges to office working mandates. Jonathan Barrett explains what’s going on.

Vance warning | The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote in the Knesset as an “insult”.

Putin ‘pain’ | Vladimir Putin has said Russia will never bow to US pressure but conceded new oil sanctions could cause economic pain. The EU has agreed on its 19th set of sanctions against Russia, including its first-ever measures targeting Russian LNG.

‘Obviously unqualified’ | Donald Trump picked Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary as a favour to his former campaign manager despite objections that she was “obviously unqualified”, according to a new book. Meanwhile the president has pardoned the jailed Binance crypto boss Changpeng Zhao, and he has cancelled plans to send federal troops to San Francisco. Keep up to date here.

Historical verdict | The only British army veteran ever charged in relation to Bloody Sunday, a seminal moment in the Troubles in 1972, has been found not guilty of murder and attempted murder. The acquittal of “Soldier F” came despite the judge finding paratroopers had “lost all sense of military discipline” and shot unarmed civilians fleeing from them.

King’s prayer | King Charles has made history after becoming the first reigning British monarch to pray publicly with a pope since Henry VIII split from Rome. The joint prayer in the Sistine Chapel was a symbolic act of rapprochement.