Good afternoon. Qantas executives faced a grilling from irate shareholders at a tense annual general meeting today, with investors voting overwhelmingly to reject a pay plan for executives – one of corporate Australia’s biggest ever protests against its executive pay plans.
Both the chair, Richard Goyder, and chief executive, Vanessa Hudson, apologised to investors for a series of sagas that had seen the company’s share price plummet. Qantas has seen its reputation tarnished after growing customer animosity at poor service and high air fares, as well as legal challenges that could see the airline pay hundreds of millions in compensation and penalties.
Top news
Erin Patterson accused of trying to murder former partner four times | The woman at the centre of a mushroom lunch that allegedly killed three people and left a fourth fighting for his life is also accused of attempting to murder her former partner four times over the past two years, according to Australian court documents.
Labor slow to reinstate ACCC airline monitoring program | More than two weeks after announcing it was reviving an airline industry monitoring program, the Albanese government is yet to formally direct the competition watchdog to conduct the investigation. The opposition says there’s “no excuse” for further delays. The program monitors the domestic industry for anti-competitive behaviour.
WA Australian of the Year 2024 is Mechelle Turvey | Mechelle Turvey became an advocate for victims of crime after her 15-year-old son, Cassius Turvey, was assaulted coming home from school in Perth in 2022. He died in hospital 10 days later.
Blinken flies to Israel | The top US diplomat Antony Blinken is due in Israel today to call for “temporary, localised” pauses in fighting to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. North of the border, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is set to give a widely anticipated speech in his first comments since war broke out between Hamas and Israel. The speech will be closely watched with fears of a spillover – a situation France is trying to prevent. Hezbollah said it had attacked 19 positions in Israel overnight in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border. Read the latest roundup from the ground in Gaza.
WhatsApp’s AI shows gun-wielding children when prompted with ‘Palestine’ | By contrast, prompts for “Israeli” do not generate images of people wielding guns, even in response to a prompt for “Israel army”. The discovery comes as Meta has come under fire from many Instagram and Facebook users who are posting content supportive of Palestinians. As the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues, users say Meta is enforcing its moderation policies in a biased way, a practice they say amounts to censorship.
Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty | The founder of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX was found guilty on all counts of defrauding his customers in a Manhattan federal court. He faces decades in prison at a sentencing hearing that US district Judge Lewis Kaplan set for 28 March 2024.
Russia withdraws ratification of nuclear test ban treaty | The move, though expected, is evidence of the deep chill between the US and Russia over the war in Ukraine. Washington expressed deep concern about Russia’s decision, saying it was a step in the wrong direction.
Why dozens of American birds are being renamed | The American Ornithological Society will change names referencing people or deemed offensive for ones that better describe species. The society drew particular attention to undoing names tied to historical wrongs – as in the case of Townsend’s warbler, named after John Kirk Townsend, who robbed Indigenous graves of skulls in the 1800s.
Warfare in Europe occurred ‘1,000 years earlier than previously thought’ | Reanalysis of more than 300 sets of skeletal remains uncovered in Spain – radiocarbon dated to between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago – indicates that conflicts took place long before powerful states formed in the region.
In pictures
This is what cartoonist First Dog on the Moon thinks about every morning when he wakes up.
What they said …
***
“Shame on you!” – Qantas shareholders yelled at chairman Richard Goyder
The chair shut down a question at the embattled airline’s AGM about former CEO Alan Joyce’s shares.
In numbers
And the popularity of large vehicles is behind the increase, with figures revealing utes and large SUVs made up more than one in three vehicles sold during October.
Before bed read
Ever thought about travelling the south of France during low season?
“For me, it sounds enticing. A world of blue skies and palm trees, winters like springs, and autumns with balmy seas and nights warm enough to drink rosé outside,” writes Sarah Baxter. Read the travel feature.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: AND. 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.
