AAP Rolling News Bulletin for June 12 at 1700
SpaceX Aust (SYDNEY)
Australia's biggest retail brokerage is keeping its call centre open overnight as tens of thousands of investors wait to see their allocation for the world's biggest-ever initial public offering.
Elon Musk's SpaceX will go public on the US Nasdaq exchange on Saturday morning, Australia time, after raising $US75 billion ($A106 billion) to advance Elon Musk's grandiose vision of making human life multi-planetary.
Commonwealth Bank's CommSec share-trading platform said its contact centre would be open overnight Friday until 6am, and then again from 9am to 5pm on Saturday to respond to queries related to the IPO.
Reuters reported on Wednesday the float was nearly four times oversubscribed, meaning that would-be investors would likely have their allocations scaled back and offered refunds.
Crime (CANBERRA)
Criminals are getting away with higher levels of online-led crime than ever before, as Australian police struggle to keep pace with a web so complex that even some perpetrators don't know they are involved.
Organised crime networks now outsource their tasks to people online, decentralising criminal capabilities and making attribution and disruption more difficult.
Dark web marketplaces and encrypted communication channels allow the sale and transaction of criminal services to flourish, with police struggling to keep up, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Hilda Sirec told a parliamentary inquiry on Friday.
She said many people involved in crimes, like arson or cybercrime, do not know they are doing it on behalf of a big criminal operation.
Current legislation made it hard to track people to the top, leaving the real perpetrators without any punishment, the assistant commissioner said.
Legal: Tito (MELBOURNE)
The mother of a man who gunned down gangland figure Gavin Preston has called her killer son respectful, caring and kind as prosecutors pushed for him to be jailed for life.
Jaeden Tito's mother Levi took the unusual step of reading her character reference aloud in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday as her son faced a pre-sentence hearing.
Tito, 25, and his co-offender Rabii Zahabe, 26, were in May found guilty of murdering Preston, 50, in Melbourne's northwest on September 9, 2023.
Footage played to the jury showed Preston and his friend Abbas Maghnie seated outside Sweet Lulus cafe in Keilor when two men dressed in black jumped out of a car and fired shots.
Preston was fatally struck while Mr Maghnie was also hit but survived, with Tito and Zahabe also convicted of his attempted murder.
Legal: Koletti (SYDNEY)
An exclusive interview with a woman claiming to have been shoved by the husband of deceased fraudster Melissa Caddick has turned into a headache for one journalist.
Hair stylist Anthony Koletti is accused of shoulder-barging 73-year-old Julie Brandon and knocking her to the ground at a cliff-side reserve in Vaucluse in Sydney's prestigious eastern suburbs in July 2025.
In September of that year, Ms Brandon arrived home from dog training to find Daily Mail reporter Candace Sutton waiting to interview her.
"She caught me off guard," Ms Brandon told Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.
"I chatted to her, I probably shouldn't have."
Koletti, 44, was in court as he fights a charge of common assault in relation to the incident.
Legal: James (SYDNEY)
Sleepless nights, overwhelming guilt and a fear-driven urge to hurl dire warnings at parents putting their kids in out-of-school care.
That is the heart-wrenching result of David William James' child abuse as described by the mother of one of his victims.
The 27-year-old took explicit photos and videos of children younger than 10 while working at six out-of-school centres in Sydney's north and city centre between April 2021 and May 2024.
Australian Federal Police tracked James down in June 2024 after linking him to child abuse material on the dark web.
He pleaded guilty in December to 11 charges related to the production and possession of child abuse material, including doing a sexual act with children to produce child sex abuse material.
Federal (CANBERRA)
One Nation's public fundraising campaign is a "smokescreen" for the money coming in from billionaire donors, a Labor powerbroker says.
The Pauline Hanson-led party is claiming to have raised more than $3 million from almost 50,000 donors to its anti-Labor "fire the liar" campaign.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other Labor figures have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the fundraising drive, prompting Senator Hanson to share an "independent audit" document authored by a software engineer to her social media page.
Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan labelled One Nation the "billionaire's party", highlighting its links to Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart who in April gifted Senator Hanson a $1 million plane.
"When it comes to big money in this country, it's all going to One Nation," Labor's national president told Nine's Today on Friday.
Legal: Murray (ADELAIDE)
The grandmother of missing boy Gus Lamont has been found guilty of possessing a gun silencer after a court heard she had a previous conviction involving the theft of firearms by a fugitive.
Josie Murray - the grandmother of the four-year-old who vanished from her South Australia homestead in September 2025 - was fined $10,500 after a hearing in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday.
Murray, 75, of Yunta, had pleaded guilty to one aggravated charge of possessing a sound moderator.
Defence lawyer Andy Ey told magistrate Roderick Jensen that he would "address the elephant in the room".
"It's been an extremely difficult time for my client. A grandchild went missing on the property late last year," he said.
"We see the media attention and number of police here - this has been a very, very difficult time for the family, trying to get through as best they can."
Legal: SKorea Yoon (SEOUL)
A South Korean court has sentenced former president Yoon Suk -yeol to 30 years in prison over charges linked to military drones sent over Pyongyang to help create a pretext for his failed December 2024 martial law declaration.
The Seoul Central District Court on Friday found Yoon guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy, saying he had conspired in the October 2024 drone incursion from the outset.
Yoon denied wrongdoing.
His lawyers said he neither ordered nor later approved the operation, which they said was unrelated to martial law and instead a response to months of North Korean launches across the border of balloons stuffed with rubbish.
Prosecutors had sought a 30-year prison term for Yoon in April.
In finance ...
SpaceX (NEW YORK CITY)
SpaceX has priced the biggest-ever US initial public offering at $US135 per share, making Elon Musk's rocket and spacecraft manufacturer one of the world's most valuable companies.
The IPO raised a record $US75 billion ($A106 billion) on the sale of 555.56 million shares, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at $US1.77 trillion ($A2.51 trillion), a record for an initial offering.
Thursday's pricing caps off a months-long effort that realised Musk's most ambitious project yet even as he stood a handful of financial traditions on their head, and as some analysts question whether its lofty valuation is justified.
SpaceX will rank seventh among US-listed firms when its shares begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, though it lost money in 2025 and other mega-caps far outpace its revenue. That values the company more highly than firms as varied as JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway and Eli Lilly, as well as tech giants such as Meta Platforms and Musk's own Tesla.
Woodside (SYDNEY)
Australia's largest oil and gas company has moved to increase its stake in the country's biggest undeveloped offshore gas resource.
Woodside Energy will pay at least $US225 million ($320 million) to increase its stake in the Browse joint venture, a $48.7 billion project 425km off the coast of Western Australia that's been under environmental review for the past seven years.
Woodside is exercising its rights to pre-empt the sale by one of its joint venture partners of its 10.67 per cent stake in the project to a third party.
PetroChina International, the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, had proposed selling its stake to Inpex Corp, Japan's largest oil and gas exploration and production company.
Woodside exercising its pre-emptive rights means it will acquire the stake instead, on the same terms.
In entertainment ...
Aria (SYDNEY)
Relatives of Australian music royalty say their legendary family member succeeded in his goal of sharing powerful culture with the world.
Gurrumul, the celebrated artist from the Gumatj clan of Elcho Island in Arnhem Land, took his rightful place in the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame on Thursday night.
The Indigenous icon was already on the honour roll as a member of similarly celebrated band Yothu Yindi, becoming one of a handful to be inducted twice.
His family opened Thursday night's celebration of ARIA's 40th anniversary with an emotional tribute to their late relative, who died aged 46 in 2017 after a battle with kidney and liver disease.
Brother-in-law Don Wininba expanded on his family's pride of Gurrumul helping to take Indigenous music to the world.
Swift (NEW YORK CITY)
Taylor Swift has become the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
"It was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it," the 36-year-old said of songwriting through a raspy voice on Thursday night that she attributed to screaming along to the night's performances and Wednesday night's historic NBA game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.
She fought back tears as she told the room about her family uprooting their lives to move her to Nashville as a tween.
"I will never be able to express my gratitude," she said while holding back tears - crediting their sacrifice for her career.
She offered young songwriters advice: "You really have to prioritise what you love, down to your very core. Because you'll need that."
In sport ...
WC26 Aust (OAKLAND)
The Socceroos have moved to allay fears over Mohamed Toure's fitness ahead of their World Cup opener, insisting the young striker returned to training as normal two days out from facing Turkey.
Toure was absent from Wednesday's training session, sparking speculation over his fitness, but the Socceroos had said they expected him to return to training on Thursday (Friday AEST).
That session was closed, meaning media couldn't verify Toure's attendance, but teammates Jacob Italiano and Aziz Behich both said Toure had trained.
"He looked good. Great to have him back amongst the boys," Behich said.
"He's fine, running about, full of energy. So it was nice to see that."
Italiano said with a grin: "Can confirm that Mo was there. Mo was fit. Mo is healthy. It's all good."
RL Origin Qld (BRISBANE)
Sam Walker has the faith of Queensland's brains trust to play his expansive way in State of Origin and the razzle dazzle half won't be changing a thing.
Walker, 23, was on track to win man of the match in game one of the Origin series on debut in Sydney before a Kalyn Ponga send-off turned the match and led to a 22-20 win for NSW.
The man Walker replaced in the team, injured North Queensland half Tom Dearden, was player of the Origin series in 2025 and is on track to be fit for game three in Brisbane after rehabbing an ankle injury.
The Maroons will have to deal with that selection quandary when it arrives but right now the Sydney Roosters No.7 is coach Billy Slater's man for Wednesday night's must-win match.
Ends Bulletin
Rolling News Desk inquiries : 02 9322 8611
