Good afternoon. In case you haven’t been anywhere near a social media site in the past five hours, the mugshot of Donald Trump has been posted online by Fulton county in Georgia, where the former US president has been charged over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump surrendered at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening and was processed as any criminal defendant. It is a moment in history and Trump is already attempting to fundraise off it, returning to former Twitter platform X for the first time in two years to post the mugshot photo with the message “NEVER SURRENDER!” – delighting the site’s new owner.
In other developments, news companies are opting out of OpenAI’s web crawler from scraping their websites, while the Australian Electoral Commission has hit back over claims about ticks and crosses on voting forms for the voice referendum.
Top news
AEC ‘utterly rejects’ voice poll unfairness claims | Australia’s electoral body has come out swinging against critics who say counting ticks as a ‘yes’ response in the upcoming referendum on the voice will undermine its fairness and impartiality. The Australian Electoral Commission said it completely and utterly rejects the assertion.
Mark Humphries comedy sketch cut from ABC’s 7.30 | The satirist’s weekly sketch has been axed after five years, with the program saying funding will be redirected to producing more journalism. Humphries tweeted he will be pursuing other things.
News websites block OpenAI’s web crawler | News outlets including the ABC, the New York Times, CNN and Reuters have blocked a tool from OpenAI, limiting the company’s ability to continue accessing their content.
Australia’s environment must be given legal priority over land-clearing and logging to survive, Ken Henry says | The former federal Treasury head for a decade until 2011 and now chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, said governments continued to not give enough attention to the causes of environmental destruction and how policy and management could be changed to turn things around.
Man in critical condition after NSW shark attack | The 44-year-old man sustained injuries to his upper and lower leg after being bitten by a shark at Lighthouse beach at 10am in northern New South Wales.
Antarctic icebreaker wider than initial design | Australia’s $528m research vessel is significantly wider than initially designed and lacks the turning ability to safely pass underneath Hobart’s Tasman Bridge and refuel on the other side. The RSV Nuyina had been denied permission to pass underneath the bridge due to safety concerns, in a situation labelled “farcical”.
Full Story
The end of Twitter and the future of digital journalism
Once a popular social media platform for celebrities, politicians and journalists, Twitter – or X as it has been renamed – has seen its followers and advertisers leaving in droves. Among those leaving are media organisations such as NPR, PBS and, most recently, Australia’s ABC, highlighting the transformation under way for digital journalism internationally.
Gabrielle Jackson talks to editor in chief Lenore Taylor and head of news Mike Ticher about what the end of Twitter means for the future of the media.
What they said …
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“Anyone flying to Europe or Asia or the Americas at the moment realises that the prices are astronomical, so more competition and more flights on those routes will help.”
Peter Dutton says there is “no coherent reason” given for why Qatar Airways has been denied its request for 21 additional services from Australia a week by the federal government.
In numbers
Kim Cattrall’s scene was a short but sweet return to the Sex and the City universe.
Before bed read
Gotta catch ‘em all, as the saying goes, but what drives people to collect useless objects to the point of having dozens of the one thing in a variety of colours and looks?
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: ROPE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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