Good afternoon. The federal government is facing calls to reinstate funding to UNRWA – the UN agency responsible for providing relief to the Palestinians – after Australia joined nine other western nations and Japan in pausing support for the agency over the weekend.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark urged the government to reconsider, saying the decision could have a “catastrophic” impact as the agency was the biggest service provider in Gaza. Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi called the funding cut “blatant hypocrisy”, while Liberal senator James Paterson welcomed the pause. Government minister Anne Aly said she hoped the suspension would be “as short as possible”.
The donor nations paused funding after Israel provided the agency with information alleging that as many as 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack. Read this explainer on UNRWA – what it is and how dependent it is on western funding.
Top news
Victorian government under fire over duck hunting | A ban on recreational duck hunting in Victoria is expected to be shot down by the state government despite being recommended by a Labor-led parliamentary inquiry. RSPCA Victoria and the Animal Justice party have condemned the government’s position.
Man charged with murder after woman found dead in Queensland home | A 43-year-old man was charged after a body of a 30-year-old woman was discovered in an Owanyilla home, a town north of Brisbane, on Sunday evening.
Brisbane teenager claims title of Australia’s fastest woman | Torrie Lewis, 19, took 0.01s off the previous 100m record of 11.11s, held by Melissa Breen for nearly a decade, and also smashed Raelene Boyle’s 1968 under-20s record of 11.20s. However, Lewis has not yet qualified for the Paris Olympics which has a new entry barrier of 11.07s – down from the 11.15s cutoff at the Tokyo games.
Bookshop apologises after owner calls for more ‘white kids’ on covers | Susanne Horman, the owner of the Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December calling for “kids picture books with just white kids on the cover”, sparking a backlash on social media with calls for a boycott. Robinsons apologised today, saying Horman’s comments were “taken out of context” and “misrepresented the views” of the company.
Australian dog of the year announced | This year’s Australian dog of the year is none other than 12-year-old therapy dog Kali. The German shepherd has worked as a therapy dog for nearly 11 years, supporting staff and patients at the ambulance bay of Latrobe regional hospital – and helping people during the 2020 bushfires in East Gippsland.
Centre-right party ahead in Finnish presidential election | With all votes counted, former prime minister Alexander Stubb, of the centre-right National Coalition party, had won 27.2% of votes, while the liberal candidate Pekka Haavisto, a member of the Green party who is running as an independent, had secured 25.8%, election officials said. The pair will proceed to the second round of voting, while the far-right Finns party candidate has been knocked out.
Charity with Prince Harry as director investigating rape and torture claims | African Parks, a wildlife charity that has the Duke of Sussex as a board member, is examining alleged atrocities against Indigenous people by its guards in the Republic of the Congo after a “decade of alerts” from Survival International.
What they said …
***
“It’s a great Australian tradition to boo a politician at a sporting event.” – Anthony Albanese
The PM brushed off the frosty reception he received at the Australian Open men’s final last night.
In numbers
See how your area fares with our interactive map.
Before bed read
A Queensland couple paid movers $11,000 to relocate their belongings from Cairns to the Gold Coast – only to find some of their items damaged.
“How can we get them to a) acknowledge they did not fulfil their obligations and b) make things right?”, they asked our consumer advice columnist, Kat George.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: PONE. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
Sign up
If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. And start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know. Sign up for our Morning Mail newsletter here.
