Morning everyone. “To this day I feel emptiness, my brother and I did everything together.” These are the words of Bryan Clancy read out in court in Amsterdam as three men were found guilty overnight of murdering his brother, Michael, and 297 other people on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The flight was brought down by a Russian missile over eastern Ukraine eight long years ago. Now justice has been done for those victims, but the pain will never go away – and the two Russians and one Ukrainian found guilty are still at large.
There was good news from overseas when Australian academic Sean Turnell was released from prison in Myanmar last night. And some will also see Amazon’s decision to resurrect Neighbours as good news as well. Find out more below.
Australia
‘Amazingly good spirits’ | Sean Turnell, the Australian academic imprisoned for 20 months in Myanmar, is on his way back to Australia via Bangkok after being freed as part of a mass amnesty for prisoners. Anthony Albanese, in the Thai capital for the Apec summit, met Turnell last night and said he was in “amazingly good spirits”.
ADF hack | A member of Australia’s special forces allegedly accessed the personal data of an Australian intelligence official working for a Five Eyes ally and posted personal and sensitive data online. The incident, which allegedly involved the use of sophisticated offensive cybertools, is being investigated by military police.
Credit limit | Online gambling companies could be barred from accepting credit card payments under a proposal backed by leading bookmaker Sportsbet and the nation’s peak banking lobby group, as the federal government probes further restrictions on betting.
Online abuse | A Noongar woman whose teenage son was seriously injured in an apparent vigilante attack in Perth says she has been threatened and abused online. It comes on the day of the funeral of Cassius Turvey, the Indigenous teenager killed in a Perth suburb while on his way home from school last month.
Good Neighbours | A few months after Neighbours was consigned to TV history, Amazon has decided to resurrect the Australian soap and filming will start again next year. It raises so many questions, such as: how did they keep the plan so quiet?
World
MH17 verdicts | Two Russians, Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and a Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, were found guilty by a Dutch court overnight of downing MH17. A third Russian national, Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted. None were in court and are believed to be in Russia, but several family members of Australian victims were in Amsterdam to hear the verdicts.
Cancer vaccine hope | The world’s first vaccine to treat deadly cancerous brain tumours can potentially give patients years of extra life, a global clinical trial has concluded.
UK recession | The UK chancellor has unveiled a series of tax rises and spending curbs as he announced that government forecasts showed the UK was already in recession.
Cheney charge | Liz Cheney, vice-chair of the January 6 committee, has rejected a claim by Mike Pence that she and chair Bennie Thompson presided over a “partisan” investigation into the Capitol attack. Pence said they had “no right” to his testimony the event.
‘Climate hell’ | Activists say the first draft agreement from the Cop27 summit in Egypt paves the way for “climate hell” because it fails to call for a phase-down of all fossil fuels, or give details for a compensation fund for climate vulnerable countries.
Full Story
Is the cost of living crisis really a wages crisis?
As inflation skyrockets and wages plummet, news editors Mike Ticher and Patrick Keneally discuss whether the cost of living crisis is really just a result of people not being paid enough.
In-depth
The UN climate agency has published a first draft of what could be the overarching agreement from the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt. Coming in at 20 pages, it seems to include text on everything from cutting greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation, in the UN jargon) to human rights, technology and food. And yet the first line makes clear that even this hugely long effort – the Glasgow Cop26 cover decision was only seven pages long – is just the beginning. Fiona Harvey deciphers the state of progress on addressing the climate crisis at the talks.
Not the news
A novel about the first world war might not seem the most original idea, but in her latest work, Salonika’s Burning, Gail Jones manages to transcend such questions. She imagines the lives of four significant historical figures, including Australians Miles Franklin and Olive King, brought together in the war-torn Greek city and – reckons our reviewer Bec Kavanagh – produces a work that “points a finger to the tragic, hypocritical injustices of combat”.
The world of sport
Cricket | A blistering 86 by David Warner laid the foundations of a six-wicket win for Australia over England in their first ODI in Adelaide last night.
Socceroos | With five days to go before the Australia’s first game at the World Cup against France, Aaron Mooy talks about how close he came to missing out.
Rugby League World Cup | Mal Meninga has not thrown any curveballs at Samoa after naming an unchanged 19-man squad he believes can secure Australia a third-straight World Cup title.
Media roundup
Households face an eighth successive rate rise next month, the Australian says, after unemployment figures fell again, raising fears of an overheating economy. Despite the cost of living crisis, the NT News says shoppers are ready to splash $60bn in a Christmas spree. New South Wales’ emergency chief thinks the state could be flooded repeatedly for months thanks to the prolonged La Niña weather pattern, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The Age says that it was the work of one analyst with a betting agency that led to the unearthing of the Brownlow medal scandal. For the Adelaide Advertiser, the big news is that Channel Seven newsreader Jane Doyle has announced a shock retirement after 33 years.
What’s happening today
Childhood plan | Social services minister Amanda Rishworth will announce her “early years strategy” for young children today.
Qantas hearing | Qantas is seeking leave to appeal the federal court decision that it unlawfully outsourced hundreds of workers at beginning of pandemic.
Cassius Turvey funeral | The funeral of 15-year-old Cassius Turvey, who was allegedly murdered while walking home from school, takes place in Perth.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
