Hi there. It's Thursday, June 6 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here
The partner of an Australian journalist detained in China says authorities have cut her access to consular officials and tightened her food supply in jail.
Cheng Lei, an anchor for the Chinese government's English TV channel CGTN accused of leaking state secrets, has been detained since August 2020. She was put on trial behind closed doors in March, but a verdict has been deferred.
Her partner, Nick Coyle, the outgoing head of the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce, told Sky News authorities claimed COVID was the reason they had to cut her monthly consular calls and supply of fresh food.
Here's some of his interview, and you can read the full story here:
What else is going on
- Police say a man armed with a rifle and handgun has opened fire inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing four people (understood to be hospital employees and patients) before taking his own life. Tulsa police Captain Richard Meulenberg described it as a "catastrophic scene".
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced an eight-year partnership with Samoa, aimed at addressing human development and social inclusion. She also revealed Australia will next year donate a Guardian-class patrol boat to Samoa, after the country's Nafanua II ran aground on a reef in August 2021.
What Australia has been searching for online
- Casper Ruud. The young Norwegian gearing up for his first-ever Grand Slam semi-final against Croatia's Marin Cilic late tomorrow night (Australia time), with the winner to play either Rafael Nadal or Alexander Zverev in the men's singles final (he also told the ATP's Food Court series that he always eats the same plain-chicken-and-rice meal before a match, but that his guilty pleasures are pad thai and sushi. Secrets to success revealed?).
- Robert Hughes. The Hey Dad! actor and convicted paedophile has been granted parole and will be deported to the UK after his third application. The 73-year-old has been in prison since 2014, after he was found guilty of 10 sexual and indecent assault offences committed between 1984 and 1990 involving four children, all aged between seven and 15 at the time.
One more thing
I will preface this next bit by saying I am a Queenslander through and through — but it is a nice story.
State of Origin I is on next week, and Panthers player Stephen Crichton has opened up about the moment he got the call from Blues coach Brad Fittler telling him he'd made the squad.
The 21-year-old was driving his mum to church on a Sunday morning when the phone rang: "He told me the news and mum was just over the moon and she started crying. It was heaps special to experience that with her as well," he said.
Crichton is one of seven Panthers in the 22-man squad, joining Nathan Cleary, Jarome Luai, Brian To'o, Liam Martin and Isaah Yeo in the expected 17, with Apisai Koroisau in the reserves.
You're up to date
Thanks for reading.
ABC/wires
