Welcome, readers, to the Afternoon Update.
The former army lawyer David McBride has been sentenced to a maximum of five years and eight months in jail for his role in stealing secret defence documents about the Afghanistan war and leaking them to the media.
The charges included stealing commonwealth information and passing that on to journalists at the ABC. It was used as the basis for an investigative series exposing war crimes committed by Australian defence personnel in Afghanistan titled The Afghan Files.
The ACT supreme court justice David Mossop sentenced McBride to a non-parole period of 27 months. He said McBride was of “good character” but said his actions were driven by “misguided self-belief”.
McBride’s lawyer Mark Davis immediately said the defence was preparing to appeal against the convictions.
Top news
Australian budget 2024 | The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will announce the federal budget tonight at 7.30pm AEST. As well as the projected $9.3bn surplus, Treasury anticipates a return to the RBA’s target inflation band. To get prepared, read our budget explainer and follow the updates at our live blog.
University requests dismantling of pro-Palestine encampment | Protesters outside Victoria’s Deakin University have vowed they will “not be moved” after the university became the first education institution in Australia to request that students dismantle a pro-Palestine encampment. The call came as US rapper Macklemore appeared alongside protesters at the University of Sydney.
Pilot covered up deaths of campers after tragic accident, court hears | A dispute involving the use of a drone and deer hunting escalated until two elderly campers, Russell Hill and Carol Clay, were accidentally killed in Victoria’s alpine region in March 2020, the lawyer for airline pilot Gregory Stuart Lynn has told a murder trial. Lynn’s lawyer told the supreme court that the deaths were the result of a tragic accident and the pilot had “made a series of terrible choices” to cover them up.
AFP questioned over Chinese ‘secret police’ | The Australian federal police must explain why it renewed a cooperation deal with China’s ministry of public security after “gravely concerning” reports about the agency’s activities on Australian soil, the Coalition has said.
New Caledonia imposes curfew after violent protests | Thirty-six people were arrested after protests against planned changes to the French territory’s constitution turned violent. Most flights had been cancelled to and from Nouméa’s international airport on Tuesday.
Trump pledges to scrap offshore wind projects on ‘day one’ | In his most explicit threat yet to the clean energy industry, Donald Trump has vowed to immediately halt offshore wind energy projects on the first day of a new term as US president. He also repeated false claims about wind projects being lethal to whales during a speech at a New Jersey rally.
Orcas sink yacht in strait of Gibraltar | An unknown number of orcas have sunk a yacht after ramming it, Spain’s maritime rescue service says. The incident is the latest example of recurring orca rammings in the area. Experts believe them to involve a subpopulation of about 15 individuals given the designation “Gladis”.
In pictures
Putting the surplus on a pedestal: is it really value for money?
And what does it say about the government’s values? Cartoonist Fiona Katauskas asks the question.
What they said …
***
“I would only answer to him.” – Michael Cohen
While Stormy Daniel’s testimony in the hush money trial against Donald Trump was widely described as “lurid”, the ex-president’s former fixer turned prosecution witness Michael Cohen sounded “wistful” as he testified about fronting the payments, keeping Trump happy and feeling snubbed.
In numbers
This is despite the fact only 3.2% of adults in New South Wales are Aboriginal. And two-thirds (66.4%) of the state’s youth detention population is now made up of Aboriginal young people, also a new record, according to data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Before bed read
‘He’d offset the intensity by setting his feet on fire’: PJ Harvey, Mogwai and more on Steve Albini
Artists from the Wedding Present to Jon Spencer remember Albini as a kind yet acerbic genius who was a true champion of artists’ intentions – and a fiend for chocolate Hobnobs.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: WAR . You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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