What you need to know
Good morning and welcome to the national news blog.
Here are the top headlines from Australia and around the globe:
- Police are preparing to arrest multiple Australian women linked to Islamic State when they touch down in Sydney and Melbourne this evening. Four women and nine children are expected to land in Australia after a long stay in a Syrian internment camp, and following a multi-legged plane journey encompassing Damascus and Doha. At least three women and five children are expected to land in Melbourne, while another woman and her child are set to arrive in Sydney.
- Iran said it was reviewing a new US proposal, after sources said Washington and Tehran were closing in on a one-page memorandum to end the war. President Donald Trump said the US has had “very good talks” with Iran in the past 24 hours, and “it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal”, hours after threatening to resume bombing Iran if it did not agree.
- Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strike targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.
Pope surprises Lebanese priests in video call
Pope Leo surprised 13 priests from southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, by joining a video call from Rome on Wednesday, telling them they were in his prayers and that he hoped peace would soon prevail along the tense frontier.
The Lebanese Catholic and Maronite priests were asked to attend an online morning meeting with the Vatican’s ambassador to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia. Once online, Borgia told them Leo was also present and would like to speak with them.
“(The pope) gave us peace and his blessings,” said Father Najib al-Amil, the parish priest of Rmeish, who attended the online meeting. “His words were reassuring, particularly as we live in constant worry over here,” Al-Amil told The Associated Press.
Christian villages along the border with Israel have been mostly spared intense Israeli bombardment that has caused wide destruction in other parts of predominantly Shiite southern Lebanon. However, the situation remains tense in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire that went into effect on April 17, as Israel and the militant Hezbollah group have continued their attacks despite the truce.
Note reportedly found after Epstein’s suspected suicide attempt released
A note Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate claimed he found after the financier’s first suspected jail suicide attempt was made public after it had been sealed and locked in a courthouse vault for nearly five years as part of an unrelated legal dispute.
US District Judge Kenneth Karas ordered the note’s release after The New York Times petitioned to unseal it and other documents in a case involving the cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione.
Few people had known about the note until Tartaglione, a former police officer who is serving a life sentence for killing four people, mentioned it on a podcast last year.
Tartaglione claimed he discovered the note in a book in his cell after Epstein was found on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around his neck.
Read the full story here.
Kheir brands IS-linked Australians debate ‘disgusting’
Gamel Kheir, Secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, has branded the political debate over the return of 13 women and children with Islamic State links to Australia “disgusting”.
“I am not a defender of them but I am a defender of the rule of law,” he said. “Throw them in jail if they are guilty but they are Australian citizens and the law shouldn’t apply selectively. They have a right to return home.”
Kheir said the children who had been stranded in camps in northern Syria had played no part in where they ended up and deserved to be rehabilitated and start a new life in Australia.
“It is disgusting that politicians are seeking to make political mileage out of this. This issue has become an Islamophobic free-for-all,” he said.
Zelensky accuses Russia of spurning proposed ceasefire
Ukraine accused Russia of flouting a Kyiv-proposed ceasefire by carrying out dozens of battlefield assaults, airstrikes and drone attacks in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described as Moscow’s “obvious spurning” of peace.
Zelensky had floated the cessation, starting on May 6, in response to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s own proposed ceasefire from May 8 to 9 to coincide with its World War II victory commemorations.
In a statement, Zelensky said Russia – which did not confirm its adherence to Ukraine’s proposal – had committed 1820 violations by late morning yesterday.
“Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives,” he said.
Elon Musk’s Texas chip factory could cost $164 billion
Elon Musk’s SpaceX estimated a chip factory it plans to build along with Tesla will cost as much as $US119 billion ($164 billion), with total investment potentially exceeding the amount the rocket maker aims to raise from a record initial public offering.
The “next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and advanced computing fabrication facility” will cost at least $US55 billion and may be located in Grimes County, Texas, according to a public notice. The estimated total capital investment could rise if additional phases of the project are completed.
Musk first detailed plans for the SpaceX-Tesla Terafab project in March, emphasising the need to begin manufacturing chips for his robotics, space and artificial intelligence projects. He said the joint venture was essential because the semiconductor industry was moving too slowly to keep up with the number of chips needed for his initiatives and the broader tech industry.
“We either build the Terafab or we don’t have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab,” he said.
Bloomberg
Jump in early voting for Farrer byelection
The Australian Electoral Commission has revealed 36,000 people have voted early ahead of Saturday’s byelection in Farrer, the south-west NSW electorate vacant following the resignation of former opposition leader Sussan Ley.
The number of early voters is about 2000 more than was cast at the same stage of last year’s federal election.
There have been 16,000 postal vote applications for Saturday’s byelection, 3000 more than last year’s poll, with 9000 completed so far.
Disenchanted voters in Farrer have indicated they will back either One Nation contender David Farley or independent Michelle Milthorpe at the byelection, which will also be contested by Liberal and National candidates.
There are 12 candidates vying for the seat of Farrer, a previously safe Coalition seat, held by Ley since 2001. The electorate has been represented by the Liberal or National parties since its 1949 inception.
Paterson seizes on One Nation altercation
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson said One Nation’s contradicting reactions to one of their volunteers grabbing his phone at a polling booth reflected broader disunity in the party.
He said leader Pauline Hanson, Farrer candidate David Farley, and chief of staff James Ashby had apologised to him for the incident, before Ashby appeared on Sky News to say Paterson deserved to have his phone snatched.
“Something’s going on in One Nation. I know they’ve contradicted each other many times on policy over the last few weeks, with David Farley advocating for higher immigration and increased foreign aid funding contrary to One Nation’s policies, but now they’re contradicting each other on apologies as well,” Paterson told Sky News this morning.
“I know James Ashby was speaking figuratively, when he said I need a kick up the backside, but I really hope none of the One Nation volunteers take that literally because the last thing we need is violence on polling booths in Australia.”
Netanyahu speaking with Trump ‘almost daily’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is speaking to US President Donald Trump on an “almost daily basis”, as Trump hailed “very good talks” with Iran as the nations near a deal to settle the war.
In remarks at the start of a security cabinet meeting hours ago, Netanyahu said his government was in “continuous contact” with the Trump administration, signalling he would speak with the president later on Wednesday (Jerusalem time).
“There is full coordination between us; there are no surprises,” Netanyahu said. “We share common goals, and the most important objective is the removal of all enriched material from Iran and the dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capabilities.”
The comments came as Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs for the first time since a ceasefire with the Hezbollah militant group was announced on April 17.
The last strikes in Beirut were on April 8, when a series of massive Israeli strikes, including in central Beirut, killed more than 350 people.
Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday’s strike, which came unexpectedly, targeted a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force. Hezbollah did not immediately comment.
Paterson won’t press charges after One Nation altercation
Coalition frontbencher James Paterson said he would not press charges against a One Nation volunteer after the man snatched his phone during an argument at a polling booth in Albury.
The clash came as the pair disagreed over this masthead’s revelation that One Nation’s contender David Farley, a former Nationals member, had previously attempted to stand for the Labor Party and supported independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe at last year’s election.
Paterson said he was grateful One Nation leader Pauline Hanson had apologised and commended the party for removing the volunteer off the booth.
“I don’t feel the need to press charges personally. I am perfectly fine. It was a bit of a scuffle, but I am okay,” he told Sky News last night.
But Hanson’s chief of staff James Ashby later contradicted the apology, telling Sky News Paterson needed a “kick up the backside” after “rage baiting” a pensioner.
Clare backs AFP ahead of IS-linked families return
Education Minister Jason Clare said Australians should trust the country’s law enforcement to manage the return of 13 women and children with links to Islamic State fighters.
“They know what they’re doing. This is not their first rodeo,” Clare told the ABC.
“When the Liberal Party let 40 foreign fighters into the country, they took the steps that they needed to take to keep Australians safe. And I trust in the words of the AFP Commissioner yesterday, when she said that some of these women will be arrested when they arrive, and others will be subject to further investigation.”
Asked whether the returning children, some of whom had never left their internment camp in Syria, would be forced to participate in community integration programs, Clare said: “Kids don’t get to choose who their parents are”.
“These children have seen sorts of things that no child should ever be exposed to, and it’s going to take time for these children to reintegrate into Australian society,” he said.
“I would expect that the federal police would want to run countering violent extremism programs with all of the children that return.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
