Documents

Briefings obtained by freedom of information warned a ‘cascade of withdrawals’ could lead to collapse of 2026 South Australian festivalGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAdelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show.After the 8 January announcement by the Adelaide festival board that controversial Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had been dumped from the AWW program, it wasn’t just fellow Australian and international guest writers and academics who began pulling out in droves. Continue reading...

Police investigating allegations Mandelson and former prince Andrew passed sensitive info to Epstein will struggle to make charges stick without filesBritish police investigating the former prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson are preparing to start interviewing witnesses in Royal and government circles.It comes as police fear that prosecutors will be “reluctant” to bring charges unless the Trump administration agrees to hand over the original documents from the Epstein files. Continue reading...

Partner of soldier accused of war crimes says the couple discussed possibility of moving overseas to ‘create some normalcy in our lives’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBen Roberts-Smith was planning to leave Australia to live overseas and had a business class flight out of the country booked in four days’ time when he was arrested at Sydney airport this month, court documents allege, with investigators telling a court “his willingness to return to Australia to face prosecution cannot be judged”.Roberts-Smith was ultimately granted bail last week under strict conditions, a move opposed by prosecutors who said there was potential concern he was a flight risk and might try to avoid ever having to face trial for a series of alleged murders he committed in Afghanistan. Continue reading...

Radio company ARN’s defence alleges the shock jock denigrated executives, censors, critics and the audience of the Kyle and Jackie O ShowFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesSign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter hereKyle Sandilands repeatedly berated Kiis FM executives, the radio station’s censors, critics of the Kyle and Jackie O Show and the Melbourne audience in expletive-laden rants, according to federal court documents.The details of the alleged tirades, which aired months before the shock jock was sacked and accused of “serious misconduct” by ARN, are contained in the company’s defence of an $85m claim filed by Sandilands. Continue reading...

• Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reported that Atlantic cod and other commercial fish populations have rebounded 34% over the past four years following strict catch quotas and marine protected areas implemented in 2022. • Population surveys conducted across 850,000 square kilometers of Atlantic waters show biomass increases in previously depleted stocks, with detailed findings presented at the American Fisheries Society conference on April 19. • The recovery demonstrates that science-based fisheries management can restore ecosystems within a decade, providing a model for international ocean conservation efforts.

The government has defended its response, citing the upcoming royal commission and work done by the Islamophobia and antisemitism special envoysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFederal Labor has been accused of dragging its feet on a plan to combat systemic racism in Australia, nearly 18 months after it received recommendations from the human rights commission.New documents released to the Senate show no progress on the national strategy delivered to the government and published in November 2024 – despite the race discrimination commissioner imploring the government to take action in five letters and at least two meetings. Continue reading...

Former SAS corporal allegedly placed man on his knees and ordered fellow soldier to shoot him, according to statement of factsAustralian soldiers have told prosecutors they executed unarmed civilians at the orders of Ben Roberts-Smith or in complicity with him, according to a statement of facts tendered to the New South Wales local court.Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient and once one of Australia’s most lionised soldiers, faces five charges of the war crime of murder, allegedly committed while he served in the Australian SAS in Afghanistan.Each victim was unarmed and present in a location where Roberts-Smith could reasonably have suspected insurgents to be located;Each offence was committed in a situation where there was no active engagements with enemy forces and the Australian Defence Force was in control of the environment;Evidence was planted or falsely associated with each deceased to enhance reporting that each of the killings were within the lawful rules of engagement;Each deceased was handcuffed, detained for a period, and questioned prior to their execution;None of the deceased was killed in a situation where the Australian Defence Force did not have effective control of the battlespace. Continue reading...

Jay Bryant negotiating plea deal in New York death of Run-DMC star, over which one conviction has been overturnedOne of the three men charged in the killing of Jam Master Jay plans to plead guilty, court records show, in what would be the first admission anyone has made in court to any role in the Run-DMC star’s death in 2002.Jay Bryant pleaded not guilty to murder after his 2023 indictment, but his lawyer and federal prosecutors told the court in recent letters that they were negotiating a plea agreement. Continue reading...