TRANSCRIPT
- A candlelit vigil to honour Bondi Westfield victims to be held today.
- Fourteen Palestinians and a paramedic killed in the West Bank.
- Australian triathlete Luke Willian boosts his Paris Olympics hopes, winning the World Cup round in Wollongong.
Brittany Higgins has broken her silence to welcome the judgement in Bruce Lehrmann's failed defamation trial, saying it is "time to heal".
In findings delivered on Monday, Justice Michael Lee found that on the balance of probabilities Bruce Lehrmann did rape the then 24-year old in March 2019.
In a post on her personal Instagram account, Ms Higgins thanked Justice Lee for his 'trauma-informed approach'.
She said after five years of criminal and civil trials it is now time to heal.
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New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says a coronial inquiry into the deadly Bondi Junction stabbing attack will help the government understand how to better manage mental health resources.
The inquiry will look into both the police response to the attack and the killer's interactions with mental health agencies in New South Wales and his home state of Queensland.
This comes after Joel Cauchi, a long-time sufferer of mental health problems, was shot dead by police after carrying out the country's worst mass killing in recent years, taking the lives of six people.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says the inquiry will help provide insight into whether the state's mental health budget could be better managed.
"The New South Wales government spends about $2.7 billion a year on mental health funding. To put that in perspective, that's about half as much as we spend on the New South Wales police force. We have to answer the question over time as to whether that money is going in the right areas and it's being spent most effectively. I need to do that with evidence and I'm confident the coronial inquiry will help direct the government's policy changes."
Hundreds of people are expected to gather in Bondi early this Sunday evening for a candlelit vigil to honour the victims of Australia's worst mass killing in years.
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The Israeli military claims it has killed ten Palestinian fighters in a two-day raid on a refugee camp in the city of Tulkarm in the Occupied West Bank.
In a post on X, Israel’s military says their forces killed ten people, arrested eight wanted individuals and confiscated extensive weaponry during the raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Palestinian health officials say a 16-year-old boy who was shot with live fire by Israeli forces was among those killed.
Video footage shows Israeli soldiers driving bulldozers through the area causing major damage to infrastructure as well as firing stun grenades, live bullets and using noxious gas against local Palestinians resisting the raid.
Red Crescent medic Haitham Khalaf says ambulances were barred from the area by the Israeli military and were unable to provide medical assistance.
"We were notified that there are injuries in the street, in al-Maslakh area, we moved there, three ambulances based on the request of the mobilization coordinator. Like you saw, the military jeeps stopped us and asked us to turn around and go back, we could not go forward, and they stayed there until we turned around and came back."
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Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the government will take on X, formerly known as Twitter, if it wants to challenge demands from the eSafety Commissioner in court.
The warning follows statements from X pledging to fight the eSafety commissioner's demands that it remove content about the stabbing at a church in Western Sydney.
The social media platform says the commissioner does not have the power to dictate what it removes.
Mr Butler says Australia will not be bullied by Elon Musk or any other tech billionaire.
"Can I say this, that our government is utterly committed to making sure that social media is a safe place for Australians and we support the work of the Safety Commissioner. Australia has one of the world's leading eSafety regimes, laws that were put in place with our support by the former government that have been continued by our government with increased funding and we absolutely support the work of the eSafety Commissioner."
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In athletics,
Australian triathlete Luke Willian has boosted his Paris Olympics hopes by winning the World Cup round in Wollongong.
It's his first World Cup round victory in five years and, while the result does not guarantee him selection for the Games, Willian has gained plenty of confidence from the performance.
The 27-year-old Brisbane native won the 750 metre swim, 20 kilometre cycle and five kilometre run event in 52 minutes 52 seconds, easily beating South African Jamie Riddle, with Diego Moya of Chile third.
Matt Hauser, who withdrew from Saturday's Wollongong race because of food poisoning, is the only confirmed Australian selection for the Paris triathlon team.
So far, Australia will have two men and two women competing in the individual and mixed relay triathlons at the Paris Games.
