Good afternoon. After the Albanese government declined a request from the United States to provide a warship to the Red Sea region, Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst has broken down the logic behind the refusal. He says the decision “has been greeted in some quarters as a seismic event, but it’s not really a bolt from the blue”.
Meanwhile, the Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial is in its final stages, with Network Ten giving their closing submissions in the defamation case brought by Lehrmann. Ten’s barrister, Matt Collins SC, told the court that Lehrmann has been “revealed to be a fundamentally dishonest man who was prepared to say or do anything he perceived to advance his interests”.
