Good afternoon, readers. Poland scrambled its own and Nato air defences to shoot down drones that entered its airspace on Wednesday during a Russian attack on Ukraine. Poland’s army has called the incident an “act of aggression” as Warsaw got involved in the war in its neighbouring country for the first time.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said early on Thursday that operations were continuing and that he was in “constant contact” with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte. Tusk called for an emergency meeting of the council of ministers at 8am local time, a government spokesperson said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has described the attack as “another step of escalation” and “an extremely dangerous precedent for Europe”.
Top news
Nampijinpa Price refuses to back Ley’s leadership or apologise for comments on Indian migrants
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In pictures
US Democrats have made public a 238-page scrapbook given to Jeffrey Epstein as a present on his 50th birthday. The book, made up of personal notes and photographs, contains letters which repeatedly reference the sex offender’s lecherous reputation.
What they said …
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“This is a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty. It imperils that work on the ceasefire and it risks escalation.” – Penny Wong
The foreign affairs minister has said she hopes Israel’s strikes on Qatar will not make a ceasefire highly unlikely, but admitted it will “obviously make it harder” to reach one.
Full Story
The Liberals’ Jacinta Nampijinpa Price problem– Full Story
The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, is in crisis control after senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price falsely claimed that Labor is letting in large numbers of Indian migrants to bolster its own vote. Price now faces growing calls from colleagues and the community to apologise, but the saga has once again exposed deeper problems within the party.
Nour Haydar speaks with political reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy about the fallout from the senator’s comments and how the Liberal party continues to alienate migrant voters.
Listen to the episode here.
Before bed read
Homer’s Iliad isn’t just a foundational Hellenic text: it’s the great primal myth of war, sacred and eternal. Its gods and mortals alike are monstrous, heroic and pitiful, endlessly iterative and contemporary. This fresh Australian take is shocking, chilling, funny and often breathtakingly beautiful, writes Tim Byrne.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: FIB. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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