Good afternoon. Reports of Donald Trump’s alleged misuse of potentially sensitive information has reached Australian shores. Allegations have emerged that an “excited” Trump shared specific details about US nuclear submarines with the Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, including the exact number of nuclear warheads the submarines carry.
US news outlet ABC News reported that Trump spoke to Pratt at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April 2021 – three months after he left office. Simon Birmingham, who was a senior minister in Scott Morrison’s government when it negotiated the Aukus security partnership with the Biden administration, said he and other members of Australia’s national security committee were expected to keep operational details secret “for the rest of our lives”.
Top news
WA police order ABC to hand over Four Corners footage | ABC journalists and the industry union (the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance) are urging the ABC executive not to hand over Four Corners footage to Western Australian police. The force have applied through the courts for the camera tapes of Monday’s upcoming program about climate protesters, which MEAA says “would not only be morally and ethically wrong; it would seriously damage the ABC’s reputation for creating valuable, public interest journalism and make the position of ABC journalists much more difficult”.
Gippsland floods ease | Up to 60 homes in Victoria’s east could still become isolated by flood waters even as the threat to residents starts to ease. Evacuation warnings for the port of Sale have been downgraded to a watch and act, but residents are still being told it is not safe to return to the town and they should instead shelter in the highest possible location.
Muslim leaders back voice | Most imams and sheikhs will urge Australian Muslims to back the Indigenous voice to parliament during Friday prayer sermons, according to the Australian National Imams Council, which has launched a final push in support of the referendum.
Swift parrot named 2023 Australian bird of the year | Voters in the Guardian/BirdLife Australia biennial poll have used this year’s competition to send a message that they want to see the habitat of the world’s fastest parrot protected. The swift parrot is critically endangered.
AI to be allowed in schools from 2024 | Artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, will be allowed in all Australian schools next year after education ministers formally backed a national framework guiding the use of the new technology. “Kids are using it right across the country. We’re playing catchup,” the federal education minister, Jason Clare, said.
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover under investigation | The US governmentSecurities and Exchange Commission is inquiring whether Musk broke federal law in 2022 when he bought stock in the platform. In March 2022, Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter and became the company’s majority shareholder. Musk bought Twitter’s remaining stock in a $44bn (A$69bn) deal and took over the company in October 2022.
US shoots down Turkish drone in Syria | The US says the drone was operating near its troops in Syria. It is the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of its Nato ally. A Turkish defence ministry official said the drone did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.
Canadian couple killed in bear attack | “Bear attack bad,” was the final text message sent about a grizzly bear attack in Banff national park in which Doug Inglis and Jenny Gusse (pictured), both 62, died.
Putin ups nuclear rhetoric | The Russian president has threatened to resume nuclear testing and abandon a test ban treaty. “In the event of an attack on Russia, no one has any chance of survival,” he said in a speech at the annual Valdai discussion club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, adding that he was “not sure if we need to carry out nuclear tests or not”.
In pictures
Old photos brought to life with colour – check out this stunning gallery!
What they said …
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“We know that the vast majority of expert legal opinion agrees that this amendment is not constitutionally risky.” – letter signed by more than 70 constitutional and public law teachers
The letter rejects claims by the no campaign that the voice will introduce race into the constitution, arguing that “the racial divide has always been there”.
In numbers
That’s the equivalent of 20,000 children being forced to abandon their homes and schools every single day, new research has found.
Before bed read
“My husband wants to separate but I don’t; what can I do?” a reader wrote to our advice columnist, Eleanor Gordon-Smith. “We have two small children, one with additional needs. I’m scared about how this will affect them. I feel my husband is deeply depressed and I worry that he is making a decision he will come to regret.”
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: ZING. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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