Midday News Bulletin 16 September 2024

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Source: SBS News

In this bulletin, the FBI says Donald Trump was the target of another attempted assassination; a political fight over housing legislation; and in sports, Australia's Oscar Piastri celebrates winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.


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TRANSCRIPT
  • The FBI says Donald Trump was the target of another attempted assassination
  • A political fight over housing legislation
  • Australia's Oscar Piastri celebrates winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
The FBI says Donald Trump was the target of what appears to be an attempted assassination at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life.

The former president says he is safe and well.

Secret Service agents spotted a gunman with an AK-47-style rifle in bushes near the property line.

They engaged the suspect, identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh of Hawaii, who allegedly fired at least four shots.

The shooter fled in a black Nissan, leaving behind his rifle and backpacks.

Law enforcement issued an alert, leading to Routh's arrest on I-95 by Martin County deputies.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explains that if Mr Trump was the sitting president, the shooting may have been prevented.

“Well, you got to understand, the golf course is surrounded by shrubbery. So, when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they're pretty much out of sight. All right? And at this level that he is at right now, he's not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he's not the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible. So, I would imagine the next time he comes to the golf course, you know, probably a little bit more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done. They provided exactly what the protection should have been. And their agent did a fantastic job."

Speaking on the ABC when the news broke, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is important that in democracies, differences are resolved at the ballot box and not through violence.

"It is good that President Trump has said that he is safe, and the incident - the details of which are still coming out. So it is not quite clear all of those details. What is clear is that President Trump is safe. That is a good thing."

**

The Prime Minister has pushed the Greens to get on board with Labor's housing bills as they reach the Senate this week.

There is no clear pathway for the legislation through the Senate, with neither the Coalition or the Greens supporting Labor's Help to Buy, or Build to Rent housing initiatives.

The Help to Buy shared equity scheme would see the government lend up to 40 per cent of the cost of a house to 40,000 eligible buyers, whilst the Build to Rent tax concession aims to incentivise developers to build affordable rental housing.

Housing Minister Clare O'Neil says it's time for politicians to act on housing.

"What we've had so far is Peter Dutton trying to stop us from putting this bill into law, and the Greens working to support him. We need that to end. We've had lots of politicians talk about their care for home ownership in this Parliament over the last two years. Now is the time for action."

**

The construction arm of the Victorian branch of the CFMEU has been caught up in a cycle of "lawlessness", where violence was accepted and threats substituted for negotiations.

This is one of the findings of an interim report into allegations the construction and general division was involved in criminal and corrupt conduct, as uncovered by Nine newspapers earlier this year.

The interim report was prepared by barrister Geoffrey Watson, who CFMEU National Secretary Zach Smith engaged in July to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations.

Mr Watson made seven recommendations, including that further investigations to identify instances when Victorian branch officials have engaged in or been subject to threatening, violent or abusive conduct be undertaken.

**

The death toll from flooding in central Europe is now at eight people, as thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the Czech Republic.

A low-pressure system has triggered downpours from Austria to Romania, leading to some of the worst flooding in nearly three decades in hard-hit areas in the Czech Republic and Poland.

In the city of Opava in the Czech Republic, rescue worker Jindrich Stefek says teams have been forced to find alternative ways to reach those stranded or trapped.

"We were rescuing people that were two metres above us on a roof. There are other people trapped in front of it, but the current is very strong. We have been trying to get there, to figure out an alternative way to reach them because the current is too strong for the boats."

**

In sports, Australian Oscar Piastri has revealed he ignored instructions from his race engineer to pull off the daring and precarious overtake that led him to winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Reflecting on what he called "probably the best win in my career", Piastri says he chose to make his move with his lap-20 pass.

He added that in doing so he was going against what race engineer Tom Stallard had cautioned over the radio, asking him to go easy on his new tyres.

The 23-year-old says he decided to take the risk.

"After the pit stop, I saw that we had managed to gain a fair bit of time somehow. And the first lap or two of the first stint, I kind of had half an opportunity - but diodn't quite get close enough. So I knew when I was in DRS (drag reduction system) on that one lap, I knew I had to try everything to make it stick because if I didn't then I definitely wasn't going to win the race. So I knew I had to go for it."

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