This is The Loop, your quick catch-up for this morning's news as it happens.
Key events
Live updates
That's all for The Loop this morning
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Thanks for joining me today. If you're catching up, here's a bit of what was covered (click the link to jump straight to the post):
- The Biden administration lays blame on Donald Trump for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Schools and colleges across the US could be forbidden from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes
- A light aircraft has crashed south of Brisbane this morning with authorities still investigating
- Few details are available about the stabbing death of tech executive and Cash App founder Bob Lee
- Twenty-two people are arrested for throwing objects and setting off fireworks at a soccer semi-final
- Experts link graves found underground to one of the US’s oldest Black churches
- A report raises questions about whether the Baltimore Catholic Church’s list of clergy accused of sexual abuse is incomplete
- Republicans subpoenae one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who was leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump
- Thunderstorms are forecast to pummel large parts of the country over Easter, bringing the risk of heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail
- Three men are given life sentences for the 2018 killing of star rapper XXXTentacion
- Republicans in Tennessee vote to expel the first of three Democratic members over a gun control demonstration
- King Charles III signals support for research into the British monarchy's ties to slavery
Now go enjoy your Easter weekend!
Zoo staff start strike at multiple Victoria parks
By Brianna Morris-Grant
The United Workers Union says Zoo Victoria staff are willing to hold out for months in an effort to get a better pay deal.
Staff at Melbourne, Werribee and Healesville zoos started a two-week strike today in protest over the State Government's new wages deal.
The union argues the government's three per cent wages cap still represents a cut to real earnings, in light of the rising cost of living.
Executive Director Godfrey Moase says: “This is a question of who pays the cost of inflation? Are we going to make workers pay the cost of inflation who through the pandemic and even before that have been doing it tough?”
Report says Croatian officials shared information on migrants
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Croatian officials and police used a clandestine WhatsApp group to share sensitive information about migrants trying to enter the country without authorisation, according to an investigation by nonprofit Lighthouse Reports.
Participating journalists in the report think many of the monitored migrants were later forcibly removed from Croatia, which would be illegal under international treaties.
Croatian police denied any wrongdoing.
Lighthouse Reports said it received 60 leaked screenshots and managed to identify 33 participants in an encrypted chat group used between August 2019 and February 2020.
“We found that among them were Croatian high-ranking officials," the report said.
“The WhatsApp group was used to exchange information about apprehensions of more than 1,300 people of mostly Afghan, Pakistani and Syrian nationality.”
Investigation after police shooting in NSW
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A critical incident investigation is underway after a fatal police shooting at Newcastle in the New South Wales Hunter this morning.
Two constables were allegedly threatened by a man with a knife in the suburb of Wickham, around 8am.
They say he stabbed one constable in the chest and the other has hand injuries. Both officers were taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.
The man is yet to be formally identifed.
King Charles backs monarchy slave investigation
By Brianna Morris-Grant
King Charles III for the first time has signaled support for research into the British monarchy's ties to slavery after a document showed an ancestor with shares in a slave-trading company.
The King takes the issue “profoundly seriously" and academics will be given access to the royal collection and archives, the palace said.
The statement was in response to an article in The Guardian newspaper that revealed a document showing that the deputy governor of the slave-trading Royal African Company transferred 1,000 pounds of shares in the business to King William III in 1689.
The king has said he's trying to deepen his understanding of "slavery’s enduring impact” that runs deep in the Commonwealth, an international grouping of countries made up mostly of former British colonies.
Democrat expelled over gun control protest
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel Representative Justin Jones, the first of three Democratic members facing expulsion for their role in a gun control demonstration at the statehouse last week.
But they failed by one vote in a subsequent attempt to remove another representative, Gloria Johnson, who had stood with her colleagues during a demonstration but had not led chanting.
The three Democratic politicians led protesters on the House floor to demand stricter gun laws.
Republicans in the resolutions calling for their expulsion accused the three of engaging in "disorderly behavior" and said they "did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions."
England wins 1st women’s Finalissima in shootout
By Brianna Morris-Grant
England’s Chloe Kelly scored the winning spot-kick to settle the first women’s Finalissima after a dramatic game against Brazil, watched by 83,132 fans at Wembley, ended in a 4-2 penalty shootout victory for the hosts.
Japanese town selling meat from intruding bears
By Brianna Morris-Grant
The remote Japanese town of Semboku has started to sell bear meat from a vending machine.
It's sourcing its supply to Asian black bears, which are listed as a vulnerable species, but still caught in traps by hunters.
Bear attacks are an increasing problem in parts of rural Japan, because of a shortage of food in the forests that brings the animals into inhabited areas to forage.
There were 75 bear attacks across the country just last year.
Victims of Brazilian daycare attack buried
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Families of the four children killed at a daycare centre in Brazil have laid them to rest in emotional ceremonies.
A man with a hatchet jumped over a wall and burst into the Cantinho do Bom Pastor children's center in southern Brazil, killing Larissa Maia Toldo, 7, Bernardo Cunha Machado, 5, Enzo Barbosa, 4, and Bernardo Pabst da Cunha, 5.
The assailant turned himself in at a police station and did not appear to have any connection with the centre, which offers preschool education and after school activities.
“I will never forget this father in tears screaming, ‘Wake up, Bernardo, it is time to go to school!” said Rose Silva, a day-care staffer at the funeral.
"Why did he do that to children who were just playing at school?”
Life sentences for XXXTentacion killers
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Three men have been given life sentences for the 2018 killing of star rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot outside a South Florida motorcycle shop while being robbed of $US50,000 ($74950.70).
Michael Boatwright, 28, Dedrick Williams, 26, and Trayvon Newsome, 24, were each convicted last month of first-degree murder and armed robbery by a jury following eight days of deliberations.
Prosecutors had not sought the death penalty, so life in prison was the only sentence that Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Usan could impose for the first-degree murder convictions.
Storms tipped for Easter long weekend
By Brianna Morris-Grant
It's going to be a cold, wet and stormy Easter long weekend for large parts of the country.
Thunderstorms are forecast to pummel the nation's east, bringing the risk of heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail.
Good Friday storms are tipped to wreak havoc on one of the busiest driving days of the year, with wild weather tipped from Rockhampton in central Queensland all the way down through Victoria to Tasmania, with Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra all in the firing line today.
Melbourne looks set to experience its coldest Easter Sunday in 80 years, with wet and windy conditions expected across the long weekend.
Temperatures are forecast to reach of a top of just 15 degrees on Sunday, which would be the coldest recorded since 1943.
Former prosecutor subpoenaed in Trump case
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Republicans have subpoenaed one of the former Manhattan prosecutors who was leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last year in a clash over the direction of the probe.
Mark Pomerantz refused to voluntarily cooperate with the committee's request last month at the instruction of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, citing the ongoing investigation.
Mr Pomerantz released a book earlier this year titled “People vs Donald Trump: An Inside Account.”
He has portrayed the hush-money payments as perhaps the most challenging and legally fraught of the potential cases against the former president.
Catholic Church criticised after sex abuse report
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A report released this week by a US attorney general’s office raises questions about whether the Baltimore Catholic Church’s list of clergy accused of sexual abuse is incomplete.
Victims and advocates have called on the Baltimore archbishop to address discrepancies — their latest demand for transparency in a decades long fight to expose the church’s coverup tactics.
The report reveals the scope of over eight decades of abuse and coverup within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the archdiocese sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, the investigation found.
The report also names 39 people who aren’t included on the archdiocese’s list, which officials first published in 2002 and have continued to update since.
Experts link graves to historic Black curches
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Three men whose graves were found at the original site of one of the US's oldest Black churches were members of its congregation in the early 19th century, a team of archaeologists and scientists in Virginia announced.
The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people in Williamsburg, Virginia's colonial capital.
Members initially gathered in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating.
More than 60 burial plots have been identified since the church's brick foundation began last year.
“Now we know they're ours — they're ours,” church member Connie Matthews Harshaw said. “Those people under that soil are of African descent. We go from there.”
Teenagers remain in custody over fatal stabbing
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Two teenage boys remain in custody over the fatal stabbing of a woman in inner Melbourne.
The 14 and 15-year-olds were arrested following an incident in Abbotsford on Wednesday night where a 41-year-old woman was killed.
Police are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
- You can find more details on this story here:
22 arrested after Soccer semi-final win
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Twenty-two people have been arrested for throwing objects and setting off fireworks following Ajax Amsterdam's 2-1 Dutch cup semi-final win at Feyenoord.
Ajax's Davy Klaassen suffered a head injury when he was hit by an object thrown from the stands, causing a lengthy delay as players from both teams walked off the pitch.
The match started five minutes late due to smoke from fireworks lit by Feyenoord supporters.
It had to be stopped 21 seconds after kick-off to allow the heavy black smoke to clear.
Few details in stabbing death of Cash App founder
By Brianna Morris-Grant
Details of how tech executive Bob Lee came to be fatally stabbed in downtown San Francisco remain scarce as friends and family mourn the man they called brilliant, kind and unlike others in the industry.
San Francisco police found Mr Lee, 43, on the sidewalk in front of a condominium building with stab wounds shortly after 2.35am Tuesday local time.
The neighbourhood where the stabbing occurred is near the Embarcadero waterfront and full of tech offices, towering condominium buildings and not much else late at night.
Police have provided little information, saying the investigation is still early.
Light aircraft's emergency landing
By Brianna Morris-Grant
A light aircraft has crashed south of Brisbane this morning.
Emergency services were called to the scene around six o'clock after the plane made an emergency landing on Lollard Street in Hillcrest.
The female pilot was the only occupant of the AirMed aircraft and has been transported to Logan Hospital in a stable condition.
Authorities are still investigating and are appealing for anyone with footage relating to the crash to get in contact.
Let’s set you up for the day
By Brianna Morris-Grant
President Joe Biden's administration has laid the blame on his predecessor Donald Trump, for thedeadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The White House publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the so-called “hotwash” of US policies around the ending of the nation's longest war.
Meanwhile schools and colleges across the US would be forbidden from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes under a proposal released from the Biden administration.
Teams could still create some limits in certain cases.
And France has reached its 11th day of strikes and unrest over President Emmanuel Macron's pension overhaul.
The government plans to increase the retirement age by two years to 64.
News you're searching for
By Brianna Morris-Grant
- PGA
Golf coach Butch Harmon says he's tired of "verbal pillow fights" between players in an interview about LIV Golf.
LIV is a pro golf tour started in mid-2022 — the European Tour wona legal battle to suspend and fine LIV players for appearing in conflicting events without permission.
"I'm just tired of the verbal pillow fights between the players," Harmon said.
"Let them be who they are and both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour be who they are and then let's just get on and play golf.
"It's sad that it's come to this. Unfortunately, we're here, I agree 100 per cent with a ruling that just came down for the DP World Tour and I think they did the right thing and the way they handled it."
