Thursday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Hero mum breaks neck shielding her children from a falling tree.

“Nothing is more important to her than her kids” https://t.co/a4zl3plPEX

— New York Post (@nypost) August 16, 2017

A mother-of-three in New York City is being called a ‘hero’ after she was critically injured trying to shield her children from a falling tree in Central Park on Tuesday morning.

Fashion editor Anne Monoky Goldman, 39, was walking through the park with her newborn James strapped to her chest, and pushing her two eldest boys Grant, 2 and Will, 4, in a stroller when an elm tree above started to topple.

“She hit her head trying to shield branches from striking the children” FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer told the New York Post.

One witness, Jamie Brown from Virginia, described the ordeal as “terrifying”.

“You heard the tree fall and didn’t know what happened, and then you heard a baby scream,” he said.

Rescuers needed a chainsaw to free the Manhattan mother from beneath the branches. She was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Hospital where she is receiving treatment for a fractured neck. Grant, 2, suffered a cracked skull, but his two brothers were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

2. Another day, another politician questioned over dual-citizenship.

Exclusive: Justice Minister Michael Keenan a possible dual-citizen due to British laws https://t.co/5UMsaojIQt #auspol

— smh.com.au (@smh) August 16, 2017

Michael Keenan may be the next Turnbull minister to run foul of the citizenship row.

The justice minister may be a British citizen courtesy of his father Peter, who was born in England in 1943 and emigrated to Australia, where he married, Fairfax Media reports.

Me Keenan took to social media on Thursday morning to insist he renounced his British citizenship in 2004 before he entered parliament.

“I am an Australian citizen and I do not hold citizenship of any other country,” he tweeted.

3. Girl, 10, escapes as man tries to grab her on NSW street.

Girl, 10, grabbed on NSW street #9News https://t.co/YgbfLDSJrq

— Nine.com.au (@Ninecomau) August 16, 2017

A 10-year-old girl has escaped after being grabbed from behind by a man as she walked along a street in the NSW town of Muswellbrook, in the Upper Hunter region, AAP reports.

The child was walking along Bligh Street between 4.30pm and 5pm on Wednesday when police say a car (Ford Falcon sedan, light grey) pulled up behind her.

The male driver then got out of the car, grabbed her and began to pull her towards the car. She tried to scream for help and punched and kicked at the man, finally managing to break free.

Police are looking for a man of Caucasian appearance, 196cm tall, aged between 20 and 30, with a slim build; brown eyes and a black and brown short goatee. He was last seen wearing a black hooded top and dark-coloured pants.

4. Second man arrested over UK model’s alleged kidnapping.

Brother of chief suspect in model Chloe Ayling’s alleged kidnapping arrested https://t.co/kmCTiEJcmj

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 16, 2017

British police have arrested the brother of a man suspected of abducting a British model in Milan and threatening to auction her online unless a ransom was paid.

Model Chloe Ayling told Italian police she had been held captive for six days after being lured to a photo shoot in Italy last month where she was drugged, gagged, bound, stuffed into a bag, and kidnapped. Her lawyer said the plot was to sell the model for sex in an online auction.

Italian police said they had arrested the alleged kidnapper, Lukasz Pawel Herba, a British resident born in Poland who has confessed. Now, officers have detained his brother, Michal Konrad Herba, 36, who’s due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court on August 17.

5. Same-sex marriage plebiscite in front of the High Court again today.

Media Alert: Postal plebiscite challenge returns to the High Court – Press Conf: tomorrow 4pm High Court Sydneyhttps://t.co/Epkf9pH7tl

— HumanRightsLawCentre (@rightsagenda) August 16, 2017

The High Court will hold a second directions hearing today into a challenge against the government’s same-sex marriage survey.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) and Public Interest Advocacy Centre say the survey should be scrapped because it breaches the constitution and the government has over-reached its powers in funding it.

“There are important questions about the lawfulness of this postal plebiscite. It is appropriate for the High Court to consider them,” HRLC legal director Anna Brown said.

The government has said it won’t distribute any survey forms until the case is finalised, which is expected soon after the final court hearings on September 5 and 6.

6. Kids cured of peanut allergy in Australian medical trial.

Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in the treatment of the deadly peanut allergy in children, AAP reports.

A small clinical trial conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute has seen two-thirds of children treated with an experimental immunotherapy treatment cured of their allergy – with no signs of it returning for up to four years after treatment.

Peanut allergy is the most common cause of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, and one of the most common causes of death from food allergy.

To combat this, immunologist and allergist Professor Tang pioneered a new form of treatment that combines a probiotic with peanut oral immunotherapy, known as PPOIT.

Instead of avoiding the allergen, the treatment is designed to reprogram the immune system’s response to peanut and eventually develop a tolerance.