What we learned today, Thursday 9 April
We’re going to close the blog now, thanks for joining us.
Here are today’s top headlines:
Australia says Lebanon must be included in the Middle East ceasefire and has led a group of other countries in expressing deep concern about “the worsening humanitarian situation and displacement crisis” as Israel escalates its bombing campaign on Beirut and the country’s south.
A man is fighting for his life after a woman allegedly attacked him with a hammer while he lay in his bed at a major Sydney hospital.
Bruce Lehrmann has lost his last legal avenue to challenge his failed defamation case against Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson after Australia’s top court dismissed his case.
A witness to the police shooting of a First Nations man says armed tactical police said nothing to the man immediately before opening fire, contradicting evidence from officers that they shouted at him to “drop the knife”, a court has heard.
Kyle Sandilands suffered humiliation and loss of reputation when Kiis FM sacked him from his top-rating radio show for serious misconduct, according to documents filed in the federal court.
The Liberal MP, Andrew Hastie, says Ben Roberts-Smith is entitled to the presumption of innocence but “none of us are above the law” in his first public comments since Australia’s most decorated living soldier was charged with war crimes.
See you tomorrow morning for another day of breaking news.
Updated
Some Ben Roberts-Smith allegations were heard in his defamation trial. How would a criminal case be different?
While the long-running defamation case involving Ben Roberts-Smith was described by some as an unofficial war crimes trial, the Victoria Cross recipient could now face the real thing.
Roberts-Smith has been charged with five counts of the war crime of murder and will remain in jail after his legal representatives declined to apply for bail on Wednesday.
In June 2023, Roberts-Smith lost a defamation case he brought against the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times over reports from 2018 that alleged he was involved in the murder of unarmed civilians while serving in Afghanistan.
He denied all wrongdoing relating to the allegations which were the subject of the civil case. While it seems likely he will defend the criminal case, he may not be required to enter a plea in relation to the criminal charges for months.
Read the full explainer here:
