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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Kris Swales

Afternoon Update: Wieambilla shooters shared ‘persecutory’ delusions; Starc lights up Ashes; and stunning New Zealand architecture

Police bodycam footage of Wieambilla shooter Gareth Train
Police bodycam footage of Wieambilla shooter Gareth Train. Photograph: Queensland coroner's court

Good afternoon.

A coronial inquest has found the three people behind the 2022 Wieambilla shootings were not terrorists, but instead killed two police officers and a neighbour due to their shared “persecutory” delusions.

The Queensland state coroner, Terry Ryan, said the weapons carried by officers who went to the remote property about 270km west of Brisbane “were no match” for the rifles used by Gareth, Stacey and Nathaniel Train, who were in ambush positions.

The mother of one of the officers killed said the victims’ families were “initially disappointed” by the coroner’s recommendations, which included the state considering mandatory mental health assessments for weapons licence holders.

Top news

In pictures

Spread across 11 categories, the winners of the 2025 New Zealand architecture awards include church conversions, bridges and homes set against wild landscapes.

What they said …

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“The pace of development of AI is outstripping human capacity to assess and perhaps even to comprehend its potential risks and rewards.” – Stephen Gageler

The chief justice of the high court says judges around Australia are acting as “human filters” for legal arguments created using AI, warning the use of machine-generated content has reached unsustainable levels in the courts.

Podcast

The fear of neo-Nazis and the politics of social cohesion with Mehreen Faruqi

In conversation with political editor Tom McIlroy, deputy leader of the Greens Mehreen Faruqi says a neo-Nazi rally in front of New South Wales parliament this month caused fear for many Australians – and the federal government is yet to respond to recommendations for a national framework for anti-racism.

Listen to the episode here.

Before bed read

“Xania Monet is the latest digital nightmare to emerge from a hellscape of AI content production,” writes Van Badham. Songs attributed to Telisha “Nikki” Jones’s digital avatar racked up 17m streams in two months, started charting on Billboard and resulted in a bidding war. But how long will the robot pop star’s popularity last?

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: NOME. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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