The challenge for the US & China is to create a special lane for climate cooperation in the midst of a bilateral highway on which all the other traffic is blocked. John Kerry’s visit to China will be an early test of what’s possible. The planet needs this. pic.twitter.com/xdv4Saz4Gn
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) April 15, 2021
We reported on this story 5 days ago, before all the fuss!
What happened to smashing a champagne bottle?
ABC News’ original social media video about the Royal Australian Navy’s launch event for HMAS Supply on the weekend featured a performance by dance group 101 Doll Squadron that included cut-away shots showing Governor-General David Hurley, the Chief of Navy and the Chief of Defence observing the performance.
This was incorrect. While the Chief of Defence was present, the Governor-General and the Chief of Navy in fact arrived after the performance.
Our reporting team initially believed they were present both because they were shown in footage of the event and because a Government MP had said that they were present.
The video should not have been edited in that way and the ABC apologises to the Governor-General and the Chief of Navy, and to viewers, for this error.
After the Defence Department confirmed the Governor-General and Chief of Navy had arrived at the event after the performance, the reporting was amended. The report that went to air on the 7pm News bulletin on Wednesday night did not include the footage. The online story has also been updated to make this clear.
The ABC’s footage of the dance performance was shot in a standard manner, from the same position as other parts of the ceremony.
Media contact
Sally Jackson | ABC Communications
Urgent.
Re-education required.
Breakfast radio presenter Ben Fordham’s ratings have fallen to their lowest levels since he took over the coveted role from Alan Jones almost a year ago.
The 2GB breakfast radio presenter ratings fell to 15.5 per cent and are well below the impressive mark Jones set when he left the station – his final survey results sat at 17.9 per cent in April last year.
Fordham, 44, was the surprise appointment to take over from Jones who spent 35 years behind the microphone and dominated the breakfast timeslot, recording 226 survey wins.
Jones now hosts his own weeknight TV show on Sky News.
Fordham’s breakfast show audience share in the second ratings survey of the year fell by 2.6 percentage points from a month ago, but he still retains top spot in his timeslot.
Advertising revenue has also been decimated – Nine Radio who owns 2GB, 3AW and 4BC – earnings fell by 62 per cent for the six months to December and was on the back of a 24 per cent drop in revenue to $44 million.
This drastic fall came in revenue came after switching the breakfast hosts from Jones to Fordham.
At the time Nine Entertainment’s chief financial officer Maria Phillips described its radio results as “disappointing” during an investor call.
From an army mate today.
Pretty low threshold for clearing cops who kill Trump supporters there:
the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice will not pursue criminal charges against the U.S. Capitol Police officer involved in the fatal shooting of 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, the Office announced today.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and the Civil Rights Division, with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD), conducted a thorough investigation of Ms. Babbitt’s shooting. Officials examined video footage posted on social media, statements from the officer involved and other officers and witnesses to the events, physical evidence from the scene of the shooting, and the results of an autopsy. Based on that investigation, officials determined that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. Officials from IAD informed a representative of Ms. Babbitt’s family today of this determination.
The investigation determined that, on January 6, 2021, Ms. Babbitt joined a crowd of people that gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election. Inside the Capitol building, a Joint Session of Congress, convened to certify the results of the Electoral College vote, was underway. Members of the crowd outside the building, which was closed to the public during the Joint Session, eventually forced their way into the Capitol building and past U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers attempting to maintain order. The Joint Session was stopped, and the USCP began evacuating members of Congress.
The investigation further determined that Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside “Speaker’s Lobby,” which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the time, the USCP was evacuating Members from the Chamber, which the mob was trying to enter from multiple doorways. USCP officers used furniture to barricade a set of glass doors separating the hallway and Speaker’s Lobby to try and stop the mob from entering the Speaker’s Lobby and the Chamber, and three officers positioned themselves between the doors and the mob. Members of the mob attempted to break through the doors by striking them and breaking the glass with their hands, flagpoles, helmets, and other objects. Eventually, the three USCP officers positioned outside the doors were forced to evacuate. As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out. An officer inside the Speaker’s Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor. A USCP emergency response team, which had begun making its way into the hallway to try and subdue the mob, administered aid to Ms. Babbitt, who was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she succumbed to her injuries.
The focus of the criminal investigation was to determine whether federal prosecutors could prove that the officer violated any federal laws, concentrating on the possible application of 18 U.S.C. § 242, a federal criminal civil rights statute. In order to establish a violation of this statute, prosecutors must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officer acted willfully to deprive Ms. Babbitt of a right protected by the Constitution or other law, here the Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to an unreasonable seizure. Prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so “willfully,” which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that the officer acted with a bad purpose to disregard the law. As this requirement has been interpreted by the courts, evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent required under Section 242.
The investigation revealed no evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242. Specifically, the investigation revealed no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber. Acknowledging the tragic loss of life and offering condolences to Ms. Babbitt’s family, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Department of Justice have therefore closed the investigation into this matter.
John Kerry is an adherent to Michael Smith's two immutable laws of climate change:
1. It's worse than we thought
2. We've got to do more.
Repeat daily.
Might have been best to give this one a swerve Kev.