Good morning, it's Thursday, April 28. Here's what you need to get going today.
One thing to know right now: Crime figure understood to be man killed in Sydney
Here's what we know:
- A man shot dead in a street in suburban Sydney is understood to be underworld crime figure Mahmoud "Brownie" Ahmad. Police are yet to formally identify him
- Police sources have confirmed he was a marked man, with a $1 million bounty offered for his murder
- Mr Ahmad had recently served jail time over the fatal shooting of a man outside a Condell Park smash repair shop in 2016
- Police were called to a street in Greenacre, in the city's south-west, about 9:30pm on Wednesday after reports of "multiple shots" being fired
- Mr Ahmad was the brother of slain underworld figure Walid "Wally" Ahmad, who was killed in 2016 in Bankstown
- Detectives are also investigating whether two cars that were set alight in Greenacre and Belmore later in the night are linked to the shooting
One thing you’ll be hearing about today: Former navy chief says $45 billion frigate program should be scrapped
- A former chief of navy is calling for Australia's $45 billion future frigate program to be scrapped, arguing the British-designed warships will not be powerful enough
- In a report for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, retired admiral David Shackleton suggests Defence, instead, negotiate with the United States on building Arleigh Burke-class destroyers
- He argues that, if that's not possible, Australia should commission the construction of more Hobart-class destroyers and he says Australia has chosen a ship "unsuited to its needs".
News while you snoozed
Let's get you up to date.
- A Brisbane driver died in a crash in the Targa Tasmania car rally, a year after three competitors died in the space of two days. The 59-year-old and his wife crashed over a steep embankment — the woman, also 59, was able to walk away from the crash. The death prompted organisers to downgrade the race to a non-competition tour event
- Russian troops are believed to have used tear gas and stun grenades to break up Ukrainian protesters in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson. Footage and images shared online appear to show people running away from clouds of smoke set off at a peaceful rally. Kherson was the first city to fall to Russian forces after they started they advanced on Ukraine
- Prince Andrew has been stripped of his 'freedom of city' honour for York. Local councillors voted en masse to rescind the honour bestowed on Andrew, who is the Duke of York. Here's Darryl Smalley, a York city councillor:
- A former American marine jailed in Moscow has been freed in a surprise prisoner swap between Russia and the US. In footage released by Russia, 30 year-old Trevor Reed is seen being bundled onto a plane in Moscow by armed officers. The exchange with Konstantin Yaroshenko, jailed in the US on drug charges, took place in Turkey.
The news Australia is searching for
- $250 cash payment: From today, anyone eligible for this government payment *should* get it in their bank account. The one-off payment's meant to ease the cost-of-living pressures for people on a whole range of benefits — here's the list of those who'll get it
- Margot Robbie's Barbie: If you missed this one yesterday, it's this pic out of CinemaCon in the US that has everyone googling — here's what the Aussie star looks like as the toy icon:
One more thing: Can your mobile phone get a virus?
The short answer is yes — but it's hard to see the signs.
Associate professor Ritesh Chugh has written for The Conversation saying phones can be compromised by malware and that iPhone users who "jailbreak" or modify their phones open themselves to vulnerabilities (similarly for Android users who download outside the Google Play store).
He says that, while it's not always easy to tell whether your phone is infected, it is likely to exhibit some abnormal behaviours if it is. Some signs to watch out for include:
- poor performance, such as apps taking longer than usual to open, or crashing randomly
- excessive battery drain (due to the malware constantly working in the background)
- increased mobile data consumption
- unexplained billing charges (which may include increased data usage charges as a result of the malware chewing up your data)
- unusual pop-ups, and
- the device overheating unexpectedly.
That's it for now
We'll be back later on with more.
ABC/wires
