Midday News Bulletin 25 June 2024

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Source: SBS News

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaves the UK after a plea deal with the United States; Four people found dead inside a Melbourne home and in football, Colombia has beaten Paraquay 2-1 in the Copa America.


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TRANSCRIPT
  • Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaves the UK after a plea deal with the United States
  • Four people found dead inside a Melbourne home
  • Colombia has beaten Paraquay 2-1 in the Copa America
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is free after a plea deal with the United States.

He has been released from London's Belmarsh prison and has boarded a plane and left the UK.

It's understood the 52-year-old agreed to plead guilty to one count of espionage.

Assange had spent the past five years in a British prison fighting against extradition to the U-S.

Before that, he spent seven years inside Ecuador's London embassy.
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Four people have died of suspected drug overdoses at a home in Melbourne's north.

Police found the bodies of two men, a woman and a teenage boy at a property at Broadmeadows.

Detectives are investigating whether drug overdoes caused the deaths but have not ruled out other causes such as carbon monoxide poisoning.
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An image of Peter Dutton's son, Tom, has been uploaded on social media platform Snapchat, with the 18-year-old holding what appears to be a small bag of white powder.

The image is captioned with the phrases "birthday day treat" and "hello how you going" and was swiftly removed from the platform by the user who uploaded it.

The location of the image appears to be a balcony on Surfer's Paradise in Queensland.

Mr Dutton's office has refused to comment on the image, saying this issue is a private matter which will be addressed internally.
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The Federal Opposition has heavily criticised the government's decision to appoint former Liberal M-P Matt Kean as head of the Climate Change Authority.

Mr Kean has been one of the most prominent members of the New South Wales Liberals and served as deputy leader of the party between August 2022 and March 2023.

His appointment in a role designed by the Labor party has been described as a betrayal by his former colleagues.

Speaking to Channel Nine, National Party Senator Bridget McKenzie says it appears to be a political appointment.

"Look, I think it's really disappointing Sarah that, you know, now that we have bipartisan commitment to net-zero by 2050, climate wars are over, let's get on with the job, that Labor's decided to make such a political appointment to our independent Climate Change Authority, in appointing Matt Kean. It seems a very loose process. It hasn't seem to go through the usual rigour that this sort of independent appointment would go through."
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The European Union has imposed further sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and approved a support package of over $3.8 billion towards the nation.

The new sanctions are aimed towards Russia's fleet of tankers that are used in moving liquefied natural gas.

The new funding towards Ukraine will come in two payments, one worth around $2.25 billion that will be made in July, and another, over $1.6 billion, to be paid until the end of the year.

E-U High Representative Josep Borrell says these efforts are being made to ensure Ukraine has their full support.

"We need to supply Ukraine with more air defences, more ammunition, and more support to the development of their own industrial capacities. You know that Putin continues attacking, targeting mainly the energy infrastructure. It's clear that Putin wants to prove that Ukraine is vulnerable. And we have to prove that we will support Ukraine. This weekend, Kharkiv suffered aerial attacks, numerous casualties, big infrastructure damage, targeting critical energy infrastructure and damaging facilities."
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In football,

Colombia have started their Copa America journey on the right foot, beating Paraguay 2-1 in Houston.

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