Good afternoon, readers. In an end to a protracted legal battle, Linda Reynolds has won her defamation case against her former staffer Brittany Higgins in the Western Australian supreme court.
The state supreme court judge Paul Tottle ruled on Wednesday that the former defence minister’s reputation was damaged by social media posts published by Higgins in 2022 and July 2023. Higgins has been ordered to pay Reynolds $315,000 in damages with an additional $26,109.25 in interest.
Tottle found Higgins had defamed Reynolds in an Instagram story on 4 July 2023, accusing her of mishandling her alleged rape and waging a campaign of harassment.
However, Tottle found Higgins had successfully establish the defence of honest opinion, fair comment and qualified privilege against defamation allegations about another post accusing the former senator of “silencing” sexual assault victim-survivors.
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A lotus pool, a row of painted Norwegian houses, a camel interrupting a picnic – Guardian readers from around the world have shared their best photographs. This image captures the moment a squacco heron plucks a fish in the river between Namibia and Botswana.
What they said …
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“Expelling a diplomat isn’t something that you do for political purposes. It isn’t something that you do lightly” – Anthony Albanese
The prime minister defended the decision to expel Iranian diplomat Ahmad Sadeghi, who was seen leaving the embassy in Canberra on Wednesday morning, after he became the first ambassador to be booted by the federal government since the second world war.
Full Story
Iran blamed for antisemitic attacks in Australia
Iran directed at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community, the domestic spy agency has determined, prompting the Albanese government to expel Tehran’s ambassador from Australia. The prime minister announced on Tuesday that Asio had “credible intelligence” to determine the Iranian government was behind the attacks against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Bondi, Sydney.
Iranian diplomats posted to Australia were not involved, the Asio director general, Mike Burgess, said.
Nour Haydar speaks with political correspondent and senior reporter Ben Doherty about why the Albanese government has taken this historic step against Iran.
Before bed read
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dropped news of their engagement on a Tuesday afternoon, interrupting work meetings, lighting up group chats and prompting ESPN to send a push notification about the announcement.
As with everything about Swift, who curates her image with such calculation that there are college courses and newspaper beats dedicated to her, this was more than just an Instagram post. Alaina Demopoulos describes the online chaos their announcement created.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: AIT. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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