AAP Rolling News Bulletin for May 19 at 1800
Legal: Jomaa (SYDNEY)
A man who tried to coerce women into sending sexual photos by threatening to post AI deepfakes of them online will be released from prison.
Benjamin Michael Jomaa, 32, was in April imprisoned for 27 months after admitting trying to extort eight women with AI-manipulated photos he scraped from their social media profiles.
In one instance, Jomaa manipulated a photo of sisters holidaying in Thailand to make it appear like they were topless before sending the image to them.
"If you don't respond, the photos are going online," Jomaa said in another message a local court judge read during sentencing.
That court was told Jomaa meticulously trawled social media pages of the victims and downloaded pictures of them.
He digitally altered the images to create pornographic composites he sent to women he considered "easy targets", demanding they provide him authentic nude images.
Legal: Gillham (MELBOURNE)
Cancelled pianist Jayon Gillham's commentary on Palestine during a classical music concert was a "middle finger" to those who had helped him build a stellar career, a court has been told.
Gillham performed Connor D'Netto's composition Witness at a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert in 2024, introducing the piece with comments about Israel killing journalists in Gaza.
The orchestra responded by cancelling his next appearance, and the performer is suing the MSO for unfair dismissal in the Federal Court.
The case is expected to test the limits of political speech for contractors in Australian workplaces.
On the second day of a 15-day trial, the court heard details of senior orchestra management's handling of the crisis in the days after Gillham's concert.
Diphtheria (DARWIN)
One of Australia's worst diphtheria outbreaks has spread across three states amid fears the respiratory disease has claimed a life in an outback community.
The National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reports 133 notifications of the disease in the Northern Territory since the outbreak began in March.
It has since spread to Western Australia where 79 cases have been reported plus another six in South Australia and up to five in Queensland.
NT health authorities are also awaiting results from an autopsy report about a possible diphtheria-related death in a remote territory community.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler described it as the biggest diphtheria outbreak in Australia for decades.
"There's no question this is serious", he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
Legal: Lehrmann (SYDNEY)
Bruce Lehrmann wants to air further allegations of mistreatment by the anti-corruption watchdog including that he was forced to give evidence during secret hearings and then gagged from discussing it.
Officials from the National Anti-Corruption Commission searched the 31-year-old's home in June 2024 over allegations he misappropriated secret documents related to French submarines five years earlier.
The anti-corruption body was searching for sensitive documents on the since-abandoned submarine project Lehrmann was alleged to have stolen from the office of former defence minister Linda Reynolds.
He has denied the claims and has sought assistance from the federal government to cover his legal costs of the investigation.
Senator Reynolds' former staffer is seeking to expand a Federal Court lawsuit against federal Special Minister of State Don Farrell and NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton.
Alcohol (MELBOURNE)
Unsuspecting Australians could be drinking contaminated illicit alcohol stocked in regular bottle shops, leaving them at risk of serious health consequences.
Almost one-in-three bottle shops visited in Victoria contained suspected illicit alcohol products, researchers from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW and National Drug Research Institute found.
The team have since gone to over 200 stores across different socio-economic areas in NSW, Victoria and Queensland to find the same proportion of bottle shops stocking suspected illicit alcohol.
"We're finding regular bottle shops are stocking products that we suspect are illicit, and we've found that have contaminants in them," postdoctoral research fellow Michala Kowalski told AAP.
People might be lulled into a false sense of security thinking their product is legitimate because they've bought it from a regular bottle shop, but the risks could be deadly with researchers finding methanol and plastic debris in some products.
Iran (TEHRAN)
US President Donald Trump has posted on social media that he is holding off on a planned military attack on Iran while efforts continue to reach a deal.
Trump's announcement came after he had threatened that the clock was ticking for Iran to strike an agreement or fighting would renew after a fragile ceasefire.
The president did not offer details about the planned attack he said was scheduled for Tuesday but said but he instructed the US military "to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment's notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached".
Trump had not previously disclosed that he was planning a strike for Tuesday but over the weekend he warned, "For Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won't be anything left of them".
Climate (MELBOURNE)
Tens of billions of dollars worth of roads, rail, hospitals and energy assets in one state alone are at risk of damage or destruction from climate change-fuelled extreme weather.
In what has been billed as an Australian first, Victoria's independent infrastructure advisory mapped risks posed by climate change to state government-owned or regulated infrastructure.
The research used climate hazard data to assess the exposure of existing assets to extreme heat, bushfire, drought, coastal inundation, flood, damaging winds and rainfall-induced landslides.
Of $318 billion worth of assets analysed across 10 sectors, Infrastructure Victoria found more than $57 billion would be at risk from climate hazards by 2030.
The figure was calculated under a "low scenario", in which falling emissions and a rapid transition to net zero would likely keep global warming to below 2C above pre-industrial levels.
Legal: OpenAI (OAKLAND)
A US jury has ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence company not liable to the world's richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.
In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, California federal court said Musk had brought his case too late.
The jury deliberated less than two hours.
The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be used and who should benefit from it.
Following the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue.
In finance ...
Economy (CANBERRA)
The first speech by a Reserve Bank official since the federal budget will be watched closely by investors as debate rages over whether the government has helped or hindered in the fight against inflation.
RBA chief economist Sarah Hunter will appear at the Bloomberg Forum for investment managers in Sydney on Tuesday, soon after a speech by Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Dr Chalmers's fifth budget, released exactly a week earlier, has attracted blowback from the big end of town over changes to investor tax breaks and the use of trusts to minimise tax.
But economists have also narrowed in on the budget's impact on the fiscal impulse - that is, how much the changes in the budget add to or detract from overall demand and inflation.
Anglo (BRISBANE)
It is not every day a mining deal comes with houses, childcare centres and the town water supply thrown in.
But in central Queensland, a big slice of country town Middlemount has been included in a deal struck to sell off a multinational company's Australian steelmaking mines.
However Anglo American's mega deal has come under fire from a local mayor, warning it amounts to the sale of "entire communities".
Anglo American is set to leave Queensland after selling its five Australian steelmaking mines to Dhilmar Limited in a move worth about $5.8 billion.
The deal is far more than a routine change of hands in the coalfields, with purpose-built mining town Middlemount set to be impacted.
Dhilmar is expected to take control of about 600 houses in Middlemount set aside for mine workers and essential staff such as teachers, nurses and police officers, making the new owner one of the town's biggest landlords.
In entertainment ...
Eurovision (VIENNA)
Austrian police recorded about 500 cyber attacks targeting the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, authorities say.
Michael Takàcs, head of Austria's federal police, said the attempted acts of cyber sabotage were thwarted.
They targeted not only the Eurovision website but also access control systems at the venue.
The perpetrators sought to disrupt, slow down or disable systems, Takàcs said at a press conference on Monday, adding that no details were available on those responsible or their motives.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said the goal had been to ensure a safe and peaceful event.
"We succeeded," he said, noting that no serious incidents were reported at live broadcasts, public viewing events or related demonstrations.
Austria's Interior Ministry State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried said authorities closely monitored potential threats from Islamist extremists and violent groups linked to Iran.
Blanchett (LONDON)
Cate Blanchett is disappointed the #MeToo movement "got killed very quickly" in Hollywood.
The Australian actress questioned why the initiative - which saw a number of women in the public eye speak about their experiences of sexual misconduct in their careers - got "shut down" when it had such a power to effect change.
Speaking in conversation at the Cannes Film Festival, she said: "It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting.
"There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying me too. Why does that get shut down?
"What the movement revealed is a systemic layer of abuse, not only in this industry but in all industries, and if you don't identify a problem, you can't solve the problem."
In sport ...
BBL (BRISBANE)
Brisbane Heat have put their hand up to be one of the first teams to play a BBL game overseas and open this summer's tournament in India.
Cricket Australia is understood to have received positive news in the past 24 hours in their quest to start the 2026-27 season in India.
The move would be designed to help increase interest in the Indian market, and also comes at a time when the privatisation of BBL teams remains up in the air.
The challenge now is to establish which teams will go because only two sides can be part of the action.
Brisbane Heat CEO Terry Svenson said the Chennai move was a good initiative by Cricket Australia that was backed by Queensland Cricket.
RU Aust (BRISBANE)
Tom Lynagh will recommit to Australian rugby as the injury-hit Wallabies playmaker battles a recurring calf injury that's restricted him to just 18 minutes of action this season.
The Queensland Reds and Wallabies flyhalf withstood a battering in his starting Test debut against the British and Irish Lions last year.
He has barely been sighted since, with a hamstring injury against Argentina setting off a chain reaction of setbacks that continue to keep the No.10 on ice.
Lynagh, speaking on Tuesday at an event marking 500 days until the Rugby World Cup in Australia, said he had torn the soleus muscle in his lower leg twice this year.
He managed 18 minutes off the bench for the Reds in between those tears and is clinging to hope of appearing again for the Super Rugby Pacific side this season.
Ends Bulletin
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