What we learned today, Saturday 22 April
That’s it for our live news coverage today. Thanks for being with us.
Here’s what we learned.
The wreck of the Montevideo Maru that was sunk in July 1942 killing more than 1,000 people, mostly Australians POWs, has been located in the South China Sea. The disaster was the worst in Australia’s maritime history.
Anthony Albanese says the conclusion of the search for the Montevideo Maru will bring comfort to families of those lost. The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, says it brings to an end “one of the most tragic chapters in Australia’s maritime history”.
Australia will dramatically scale back the number of infantry fighting vehicles it buys for the army as part of a defence overhaul.
The New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, who is in Australia, says he is encouraged to see a dramatic drop in the number of Kiwis being deported to his country from Australia.
Police say they’re worried about the welfare of a mother after a days-old newborn baby was left at a house in Blacktown, western Sydney, on Friday afternoon.
The Greens have withdrawn support for Tasmania’s AFL licence bid citing a billion-dollar stadium the party says the island state doesn’t need and can’t afford.
The UN’s weather agency says the last eight years have been the hottest on record, despite three consecutive La Niñas that have a cooling influence on the planet.
Have a good rest of your weekend. We’ll have another live blog tomorrow.
Updated
Australian officials to attend Anzac Day services at Gallipoli, Villers-Bretonneux and Kokoda track
The finding of the wreck of the Montevideo Maru earlier today – where more than 1,000 people, mostly Australian POWs, lost their lives in 1942 – comes ahead of Tuesday’s Anzac Day commemorations.
Australian elected officials will attend dawn services at Gallipoli, the western front in France and the Kokoda track on Tuesday, AAP reports.
At the dawn service in Gallipoli in Turkey, Veterans affairs minister Matt Keogh will deliver the commemorative address on Anzac Day morning.
Assistant veterans affairs minister Matt Thistlethwaite will attend a dawn service at the western front, in Villers-Bretonneux in France.
In Papua New Guinea, international development minister Pat Conroy will commemorate the day at the Kokoda track and Bomana war cemetery.
Multicultural affairs minister Andrew Giles will attend a service at Hellfire Pass in Thailand, where Australian prisoners of war were held during the second world war.
As the country remembers the fallen on the 108th Anzac Day, federal MPs will also attend services in their local communities.
Updated
