TRANSCRIPT
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he was the first person to speak to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after he landed in Australia as a free man.
Mr Assange landed in Canberra last night and is back on Australian soil for the first time in more than a decade, after pleading guilty to a single U-S espionage charge in a deal with the Department of justice.
This ends a 14 year saga, including 5 years spent in a high security prison in the U-K, and 7 years before that in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Mr Assange's laywer Jennifer Robinson has thanked the Australian government for their support.
"I really want to thank everyone who has joined us in this fight, who have supported us along the way, because without that support and the campaigning that's been done, we just wouldn't be in this position. Julian is incredibly grateful for the support that he's had, from the Australian government and the Australian public, and we're delighted that he's home, he's finally home."
Julian Assange's family say they hope the WikiLeaks founder can return to some form of normality after landing in Australia a free man.
Mr Assange has been reunited with his father John Shipton, and his wife Stella Assange in Canberra, as he returned to his home country for the first time in over ten years.
Mr Shipton says he hopes his son will be able live an ordinary life, raising his children alongside his wife, a human rights lawyer and part of his legal team, who he married in a ceremony in 2022 in London's Belmarsh Prison.
Speaking to SBS News from France, his brother Gabriel Shipton says he hopes his brother can spend some time in a remote area, and feel the sand between his toes.
"It was a different world, thirteen years ago, fourteen years ago, when Julian was first detained, and a lot has changed. Julian has to contend with all that and come to terms with that. His profile is also very different. He will never be able to experience the Australia he once knew, in the way he knew it, and I think he longs for that. Actually when I was talking to him, he really longs to go to the places that he knows in Australia and visit them again, and see what they're like now."
The United Nations has revealed 2023 saw the highest number of violations against children in nearly a decade.
It found there were over 32,000 grave violations against more than 22,000 children during the year.
UN special representative for children Virginia Gamba says these violations included killings, maiming, recruitment, denial of humanitarian access, and abduction.
The report reveals 5,301 children were killed and 6,348 injured, a 35 per cent increase from previous years.
Ms Gamba says there's no excuse for harming children during armed conflict.
“Let me remind all warring parties, whether state armed forces or non-state armed groups that, when they resort to armed force, in contradiction with the Charter of the United Nations, they cannot do so at the cost of the lives and wellbeing of children.”
An exhibition in Melbourne is promising to transport visitors back to the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
The centrepiece is a 66 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil named Victoria, one of the biggest and most complete, ever discovered.
Victoria was first discovered in 2013 by a group of prospectors and citizen scientists, in the U-S state of South Dakota.
Museums Victoria Palaeontologist Tim Ziegler says they believe the dinosaur lived to be 28 years old.
"Until now, Tyrannosaurus Rex has been a poster on my childhood wall. So now, to stand and look in the eye of Victoria, of this beast, that's a lifetime achievement for any palaeontologist as well as every 5-year-old in the country."
In rugby league,
Queensland will be hoping to replice the 2022 State of Origin after suffering a 38-18 loss at the MCG.
In 2022, Queensland won the series opener, then suffered a 44-12 loss to the New South Wales side, only to return to Lang Park for a decider where they scored a famous victory.
In Game Two of this year's series, the Blues ran in six tries in the opening half to lead Queensland by 34 points at the break - the biggest ever advantage in Origin history.
Queensland coach Billy Slater has conceded it was a tough first half.
The men's series finishes at Lang Park on July 17.
