Hello. It's Friday, March 11 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here
Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has been cleared of all charges over the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this section contains the name and image of a person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
Kumanjayi Walker was shot three times during a struggle with officers in a home in the community 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in November 2019.
- The first shot, which came after Mr Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors, was not the subject of any charges
- Prosecutors had argued the second and third shots fired during a struggle with Mr Walker were not legally justified
- But Constable Rolfe's legal team argued he was acting in defence of himself and his partner and in line with his training and duties
Family spokesperson Samara Fernandez-Brown, Kumanjayi Walker's cousin, said supporters were unable to put their grief into words and that the community felt let down by the trial.
She said the family remembered Mr Walker as a young man "who loved animals, who loved his family, who loved his partner, his friends, his homelands, who loved music".
What else is going on
- Tasmania's Premier Peter Gutwein has spoken for the first time about wrestling free from a teacher who sexually assaulted him when he was 16 years old. He revealed his experience after being asked whether he would discipline members of his party who were heard groaning during Question Time in response to a question about the state's upcoming Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse
- Top EU officials have condemned Russia's bombing of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as a "war crime", but Russia maintains the air strike did not target civilians. It comes as the US and UK governments voice concerns Russia may deploy biological and chemical weapons during its assault on Ukraine
News alerts you might have missed
- Queensland leg-spinner Mitch Swepson will make his Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi on Saturday, replacing Josh Hazlewood
- Satellite images show a 64km-long convoy of Russian forces that had been slowly advancing towards Kyiv appears to have dispersed and redeployed
If you haven't already, download the ABC News app and turn on notifications for the news topics you're most interested in.
What Australia has been searching for online
- Nick Kyrgios. The Aussie has made a winning return to the tennis court, unleashing a serving blitz to power past Sebastian Baez 6-4, 6-0 at the prestigious Indian Wells tournament in California.
- Jussie Smollett. The US actor has been sentenced in a Chicago court to 30 months probation and 150 days in jail for staging a hate crime against himself.
One more thing
Australian entertainment business The Great Moscow Circus has set the record straight over its affiliations with Russia after some social media commentators wrongly linked attending the circus with supporting the invasion of Ukraine.
The company responded after some social media users posted comments like:
- "Why would anyone support anything out of Russia [because of] the horrendous acts this country is inflicting on its neighbours"
- "I support the (sic) Ukraine and will not be supporting your circus"
- And calling on the company to change its name (something its management says isn't on the cards)
"We're not Russian, we're Australian," manager Mark Edgley says.
Mr Edgley says the circus has helped its Ukrainian performers by inviting their families to Australia and supporting them with immigration, and that while the private enterprise is "not a political company", it does not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
You're up to date
Thanks for reading, we'll see you next week.
ABC/wires
