Taylor Swift makes Arias history; Tucker Carlson and Clive Palmer to headline ‘Australian freedom conferences’ – as it happened

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As we reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.

However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEST.

The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.

X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.

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Gardener charged with murder after alleged attack on elderly Brisbane couple

A 26-year-old Beachmere man has been charged with one count of murder and one count of attempted murder

Homicide detectives have charged a man with murder after a man was found dead and a woman suffered serious head injuries at a home north of Brisbane.

Det Insp David Harbison said it was not a domestic violence-related incident and the 26-year-old man was not previously known to the victims.

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Sussan Ley ‘really disappointed’ with Elon Musk – as it happened

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Hundreds gather in Sydney for Anzac Day dawn service

AAP has the details on Sydney’s dawn service where hundreds of people – including veterans – gathered under a full moon and clear skies for a solemn service in the CBD.

You who have loved will remember the glow of their glad young years, as you stand today to salute them in silence, with pride and with tears.

The best thing about the ceremony this morning is to see the number of people that come early in the morning.

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Queensland’s state library launched an AI war veteran chatbot. Pranksters immediately tried to break it

Less than 24 hours after the bot was launched, internet users were already attempting to ‘jailbreak’ the program

Charlie, the AI war veteran chatbot, was programmed to educate people about the first world war, mateship and life in the trenches in time for Anzac Day.

But less than 24 hours after the bot was launched, internet users were already attempting to “jailbreak” it.

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Sydney counter-terror raids – as it happened

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Inspired by similar protests in the United States, students from Sydney University established a protest on the quad in support of Palestine last night, stating they will remain until the uni cuts ties “with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers”.

In the US, dozens of students have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations at Yale University and New York University amid similar protests:

For six months now, we have watched bombs rain down on Gaza. These bombs hit their civilian targets because of the research carried out by universities like Sydney University... Students have a responsibility to stand up and refuse to be complicit in genocide.

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‘Alarming’ traffic light design at Brisbane intersection where young cyclist died after being hit by bus

Green light created impression both bike and bus had right of way when 20-year-old Max Patrick McDowall was killed, coroner’s court hears

A forensic crash investigator was “alarmed” at the design of the intersection where a 20-year-old cyclist died, because its traffic lights gave both vehicles the impression they had right of way simultaneously, the Queensland coroner’s court has heard.

A recreation of the fatal accident showed that the driver of the Brisbane city council bus, Andrew Rudnicki, had almost no opportunity to see Maximillian Patrick McDowall, before he struck and killed him.

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Tanya Plibersek rejects windfarm proposed for biodiverse Queensland forest

Plan for 42-turbine Wooroora project withdrawn after minister signals refusal because of threat to spectacled flying-fox habitat

A proposed windfarm next to the wet tropics world heritage area in north Queensland will not go ahead after the federal government signalled it would refuse the project.

Ark Energy had proposed building the 42-turbine Wooroora Station windfarm – formerly known as the Chalumbin windfarm project – 15km south-west of Ravenshoe.

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Australia news live: Dfat issues Middle East travel advice; Nationals concerned after fire ants spotted near Murray Darling Basin

Reports of explosions in Iranian city of Isfahan prompt sell-off of stocks in Australia – and in other markets such as Japan. Follow the day’s news live

The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, is speaking to the media after a 16-year-old was charged with a “terrorist act” for allegedly stabbing a bishop on Monday and is expected to appear at a bedside hearing today.

She said members of the joint counter-terrorism team interviewed the alleged offender at a medical facility last night, and he was subsequently charged with a commonwealth offence for terrorism and refused bail.

We expect he will be attending a bedside court hearing today to determine bail. This relates to the stabbing of the Bishop [Mar Mari Emmanuel, who] we allege on Monday night [was] stabbed up to six times.

We also allege that the boy had travelled for 90 minutes to attend that location from his home address.

We’ve got a crisis of male violence in Australia. We know that it’s a scourge in our society, we know it must end and I think it’s really clear women can’t be expected to solve violence against women although it is time for men to step up.

I don’t think debating definitions is the way to go … We need to act, we need to educate ourselves, men need to step up, we need to talk to our sons, to our colleagues, to our friends. We need to work together to a solution. And I think going down some kind of almost a wrong path to say let’s redefine – it’s not about definitions. This is about action. We need to shift the way in which we think about this …

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Teenager dies after suspected crocodile attack in the Torres Strait

Body of 16-year-old boy discovered with injuries ‘consistent with a crocodile attack’ as wildlife officers search for animal

A teenager has died after a suspected crocodile attack off an island in the Torres Strait, police have confirmed.

Thursday Island water police launched a search and rescue operation near Saibai Island after receiving reports at about 4am on Thursday that a 16-year-old boy was missing.

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High-ranking Queensland police officers under scrutiny over offensive social media activity

Exclusive: Ethical standards command launches internal review as Guardian Australia unearths Facebook posts dating back years

Queensland police’s ethical standards command is conducting a review after high-ranking members of the service appeared to publicly share and comment on lewd social media posts over a number of years, including one about a sexual assault.

From 2017 to 2022, Det Supt Benjamin Fadian publicly tagged a number of officers in dozens of Facebook posts about subjects including pornography, masturbation and dildos.

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A bipartisan committee set out to end Queensland’s politicisation of youth crime. It failed spectacularly

Disappointment and frustration as parliamentary inquiry into youth justice reform ‘degenerates into a squabble’

Queensland’s only independent state MP, Sandy Bolton, had high hopes last October when she was made chair of a parliamentary committee tasked with coming up with solutions on youth crime.

It was the first parliamentary committee to be independently chaired in more than two decades, and Bolton hoped it would stymie the politicisation of the issue by taking “a collaborative and bipartisan approach” that would lead to “constructive solutions”.

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Australia news live: Marles says Labor ‘utterly committed’ to Brereton response but can’t say when work will be completed

Follow today’s news live

Unemployment ‘might take up a little bit’ when new numbers released later this week

Q: Given the economic conditions we’re seeing, what should households with mortgages expect?

[Inflation] won’t necessarily continue to come off in a perfectly straight line, but [it] is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago when we came to office. That’s a good thing.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of things going for us in Australia, but enough to concern us as well about the global conditions about the way that people are still under considerable cost of living pressure.

The way that I would describe it to your listeners is we’ve got inflation lingering in parts of the world, we’ve got growth slowing in China and elsewhere, we’ve got tensions rising in the Middle East and the war in Europe. We’ve got supply chains which are straining and we’ve got a global economy which is fragmenting and transforming and so all of these factors are really important to us as we finalise the government’s third budget.

These are going to be these global conditions are going to be a really big influence on our budget, so the trip to DC which will be a pretty quick and make the most of it but it’s a good opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy.

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Cost of fire-ant outbreak in Australia could be much higher than ‘flawed’ earlier prediction, data shows

Australia Institute says 2021 analysis had 15-year timeframe when modelling of the invasive species is usually over 20 to 30 years

The cost of a widespread fire ant outbreak may be far higher than predicted in “flawed” government modelling provided to ministers in the fight against the highly invasive species, new research suggests.

The Australia Institute data, released on Wednesday, found that red imported fire ants will cost Australians more than $22bn by the 2040s if left to run rampant, with the benefits of achieving eradication estimated to be three to nine times greater than the $3bn needed to achieve that eradication.

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300,000ha Queensland cattle station bought for conservation after $21m donation

State government and Nature Conservancy jointly purchase Vergemont station, which contains habitat for endangered night parrots

A Queensland outback cattle station the size of Yosemite national park which includes key habitat for the elusive night parrot has been acquired for conservation after an anonymous donation of $21m.

Vergemont station, 110km west of Longreach, was acquired in a joint purchase by the Queensland government and the Nature Conservancy, which brokered the deal. The group said it is likely the single largest philanthropic contribution to land protection in Australia.

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Parents fear children are being sent back to asbestos-riddled classrooms at Queensland school

Premier Steven Miles says experts advise all classrooms at Rochedale state school ‘are safe for staff and students to return’

Parents are terrified their children are still being exposed to asbestos at a Queensland primary school, alleging a patch-up job has not made the classrooms safe.

They fear children may have been exposed to asbestos for months or even years at the school.

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Former Test cricketer Michael Slater denied bail over domestic violence charges

The 54-year-old faces 19 charges relating to alleged incidents on the Sunshine Coast between December and April

Former Australian Test cricketer Michael Slater will remain behind bars after being refused bail in a Sunshine Coast court.

Slater is facing 19 charges relating to alleged offences perpetrated on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on various dates between 5 December 2023 and 12 April.

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Global heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record

The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say

Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.

Some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch said.

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Licence to trill: Molly the magpie returned to Queensland carers after special wildlife permit granted

Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen are allowed to keep the bird, which had become Instagram famous with their staffy, Peggy, but are forbidden from monetising it

Molly the magpie has been returned to its Gold Coast carers – but they are no longer allowed to make money from its 837,000 Instagram followers.

The department of environment, science and innovation approved a special licence for Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, who have cared for it since it fell from the nest in 2020.

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Joel Cauchi: who was the Queensland man who carried out the Bondi Junction mass stabbing?

Police say 40-year-old was an itinerant who moved to NSW last month and had a history of mental illness

Queensland man Joel Cauchi has been named as the man who killed five women and one man at the Bondi Junction shopping centre during a horrific mass stabbing on Saturday.

The 40-year-old was shot dead by a police officer, Amy Scott, who responded to the attack at the busy shopping centre while on duty for an unrelated matter.

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Queensland police employee accused of selling domestic violence victim’s personal information to ex-partner

Woman suspended from road policing command and charged with one count of stalking and four counts of computer hacking

A Queensland police employee has been suspended and faces criminal charges for allegedly selling the personal information of a domestic violence victim to a former partner, who was later accused of stalking.

The police employee, a 46-year-old woman from the Queensland road policing command, will face court on Friday.

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