US secretary of state Marco Rubio condemns sanctions against Israeli leaders
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued a strong statement condemning the sanctions against two Israeli cabinet members. He said:
These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war. We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace.
We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is. The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.
Rubio is a staunch ally of US president Donald Trump and has fiercely defended Israel’s campaign against Hamas. In February, he said the group “must be eradicated” and earlier this month he imposed sanctions on four judges on the international criminal court in retaliation for the group issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli officials.
Key events
Luca Ittimani
ACCC fines businesses for misleading Black Friday sales
Major retailers Michael Hill, MyHouse and Hairhouse Online have been fined nearly $20,000 each over alleged misleading Black Friday sales advertising.
The businesses had falsely described discounts as applying “sitewide,” giving customers the incorrect impression that sales applied to all goods or at higher rates than was actually the case, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged. ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said:
Advertisements that talk about ‘sitewide’ or ‘storewide’ sales or promise discounts ‘off everything’ should deliver what customers expect, and not be used by retailers to hook consumers under false pretences.
Jewellery retailer Michael Hill paid a $19,800 penalty after the ACCC issued an infringement notice over advertising a “Member Event 25% off Sitewide” sale despite offering no discount on some products online, Lowe said.
Beauty business Hairhouse and homewares retailer MyHouse paid the same penalty after receiving one infringement notice each for Black Friday advertising. Hairhouse’s website advertised customers could “SAVE 20% to 50% SITEWIDE,” though the ACCC said at least a quarter of the products onsite were not included in the sale offer.
MyHouse displayed online graphics telling shoppers they could save “Up to 60% Off Sitewide + EXTRA 20% off,” which the watchdog said was misleading because the extra 20% discount was not available on all products.
The ACCC said it had investigated dozens of Black Friday and Boxing Day sales advertisements from 2024 that may have misrepresented the size and scope of discounts on offer.
Australian NY Times reporter describes ‘intense’ pain of being hit by non-lethal weapon in LA
Livia Albeck-Ripka, an Australian reporter working for the New York Times, said she was hit by a crowd-control munition while covering the ongoing immigration protests in Los Angeles. She said she was covering the events earlier this week, where she witnessed many measures deployed by police officers, saying in a video for the Times:
I myself … witnessed massive, loud flash-bangs, teargas being released, munitions being fired, a number of people injured. And I happened to be one of them.
Around midnight during a night of coverage, Albeck-Ripka said officers quickly began deploying munitions as soon as she arrived on scene:
Officers began firing crowd-control munitions in our direction, and I was hit below my ribcage. It was a pretty intense instant pain, I felt winded. I was really lucky because I was not seriously injured, I just have a nasty bruise.
Albeck-Ripka noted she did see some protesters throwing rocks and rental scooters over an overpass and noted some did light autonomous vehicles on fire, “so there was some threat of violence.”
At the same time the vast majority of protesters were acting peacefully.
Search continues for man near Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain
Crews will resume their search for 52-year-old Christopher Inwood in the Cradle Mountain area. Concerns for his welfare began on Tuesday after the man’s white Toyota van was found at the car park of a ranger station in the area. Officials later found a backpack they believe belonged to him about 500 metres away in the direction of Dove Lake.
Emergency crews involving ground patrols and helicopters will search the area today.
Inwood was last seen about 8.30pm on Monday in Kindred, Tasmania, and officials believe he drove to Cradle Mountain later that night.
Benita Kolovos
Official defends new, empty law courts in Victoria
The head of Victoria’s court services defended Wyndham Law Courts in Werribee remaining unused since construction was completed in March, insisting the multimillion-dollar facility is not “sitting idle”.
During a tense exchange at the state’s budget estimates, Liberal MP Nick McGowan pressed Court Services Victoria chief executive Louise Anderson on why the state-of-the-art court complex in Melbourne’s booming western suburbs remains unused. Anderson said while the building reached “practical completion” at the end of 2024, work on landscaping and accessibility was carried out between December and March.
She says the building was then officially handed over to Court Services Victoria in March, with funding to begin operations only allocated in the May budget. Anderson said it would begin operations this calendar year:
It hasn’t been sitting idle. The court was built on time and on budget.
ABC camera operator hit by rubber bullet in LA protests, reporter says
Amanda Meade
LAPD aware second Australian journalist affected by crowd-control measures
The Los Angeles police department confirmed it’s aware a second Australian journalist, the ABC’s North America correspondent Lauren Day, was affected by police deployment of non-lethal weapons during the protests.
The LAPD said overnight it is “aware of less-lethal deployment use during the protests” amid reports Day was hit by teargas during her coverage.
Earlier, on 9 June (LA time), the LAPD said it was investigating the use of excessive force by officers, in an apparent reference to Nine correspondent Lauren Tomasi who was hit by a rubber bullet in the leg.
“In addition the LAPD Professional Standards Bureau will be investigating allegations of excessive force and other actions related to LAPD actions during the protests,” the force said in a media statement posted on social media.
There has been a third incident involving Australian media crews overnight. The ABC has reported an ABC camera operator was later hit with a rubber bullet in the chest but was not injured. Day reported:
An ABC camera operator was filming a group of protesters in the neighbourhood of Little Tokyo, who were pushing a large bin towards police when officers opened fire with less lethal rounds. He was hit in the chest with what may have been a rubber or foam round but was thankfully wearing a Kevlar vest at the time.
He described the pain as ‘like being punched in the chest’.
Benita Kolovos
Job cuts at Victorian children’s court
Good morning from Victorian budget estimates, which is now into its second week. We’ve heard from the Victorian attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, and senior officials from her department.
Under questioning from the Liberal MP Richard Welch, Court Services Victoria chief executive Louise Anderson has confirmed there were 34 specialist workers in the children’s court conciliation unit who were made redundant before Christmas.
Kilkenny says the job cuts were a result of a “return to the pre-Covid approach of using pre-trial readiness hearings and judicial resolution conferences to assist with managing child protection matters”. She added it was “not a consequence of funding issues”.
Guardian Australia has reported Court Services Victoria has made plans to slash dozens of staff amid government efforts to reign in the public service budget. This includes 24 jobs from the magistrates court’s corporate services department and 48 roles across the court’s programs, services and support teams, to be replaced with just 35 new roles – a net loss of 13 staff.
Krishani Dhanji
Wong says Israel’s aid blockade ‘unacceptable’
Penny Wong was asked by our colleague Josh Butler, about whether Australia would provide more aid for Gaza, including a call by British-Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa for money for a children’s hospital in Gaza.
Wong said she spoke at length with Mustafa during the federal election campaign, and called him an “impressive individual”. She said:
He [Mustafa] spoke very personally about what he had seen, and it accords with what we’ve all not only seen in media, but also the reports that come through, particularly during the period in which Israel blockaded all aid entering.
What occurred in Gaza for children and for civilians was unacceptable.
The foreign minister said the first thing that must happen is for Israel to allow aid to enter Gaza “unimpeded”, and said the statement from Australia and other countries to impose sanctions does that.
Krishani Dhanji
Wong won’t say if Australia considering sanctions against Netanyahu
Penny Wong says the latest sanctions “send a message” to Israel that it must allow more aid into Gaza. Speaking to reporters in Canberra after a round of morning media interviews, the foreign minister wouldn’t rule out further sanctions.
But when asked whether the government was considering targeted sanctions on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she wouldn’t say:
I’m sending a message to the Israel government, alongside the overwhelming majority of the international community, that you are obliged to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza for civilians unhindered, and that is an expression of international law and obligations under international humanitarian law.
So far, the Netanyahu government has ignored this international position, just as when we applied those sanctions previously and when we applied sanctions against Hamas for their terrorism. Australia never speculates about possible future sanctions, we apply them without warning, because that makes them harder to evade, and overnight, we have done that.
Girl, 17, shot by police at pub in Townsville
Police shot a 17-year-old girl at a pub in Townsville yesterday evening after she allegedly moved towards officers with a knife.
Queensland police said they responded to reports of a girl with a knife making threats at the hotel around 5.30pm. Officials alleged the teenager “came at police” and was subsequently shot.
First aid was provided by officers at the scene and she was transported to an area hospital for treatment. A crime scene has been declared and an investigation is ongoing.
Albanese says message behind sanctions ‘very clear’; calls US response ‘predictable’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the US response condemning sanctions against two Israeli cabinet ministers was “predictable, frankly”, adding Australia believed rhetoric coming out of Israel was a “serious impediment” to a two-state solution. Albanese told ABC Radio Sydney:
The message is very clear, that the actions that we’re seeing and some of the comments that have been made, by these two ministers … have incited violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The prime minister also responded to US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s condemnation of the sanctions:
I think those responses are predictable, frankly, but we have engaged and put forward in a very clear and direct way to the Israeli government … we have continued to express our concern about humanitarian issues in Gaza.
Albanese added the Australian government wasn’t a participant in the conflict in Gaza, but stressed Canberra “continued to declare that Israel has a right to live within secure borders. But we’ve also declared that Israel must comply with international concerns and international law.”
Socceroos score World Cup place with 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia
Exciting news in the world of sport this morning: the Socceroos area heading to the 2026 World Cup. The team secured a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia in Jeddah.
As the Guardian’s Joey Lynch writes:
A breathtaking game of football that will go down in the annals of Asian football this was not. But given the stakes involved and the final result, few of a green and gold persuasion will care.
The Socceroos will now head to next year’s championship, which will take place across the US, Canada and Mexico from June 2026.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio condemns sanctions against Israeli leaders
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, issued a strong statement condemning the sanctions against two Israeli cabinet members. He said:
These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war. We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace.
We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is. The United States urges the reversal of the sanctions and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.
Rubio is a staunch ally of US president Donald Trump and has fiercely defended Israel’s campaign against Hamas. In February, he said the group “must be eradicated” and earlier this month he imposed sanctions on four judges on the international criminal court in retaliation for the group issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli officials.
Lidia Thorpe says every death in custody linked to ‘ongoing trauma and pain and loss’
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe spoke to ABC News this morning about the recent deaths of two Indigenous men in the Northern Territory while in police custody. She said:
It’s just ongoing trauma and pain and loss and fear. With so many deaths in custody … It’s a question on everyone’s mind of when will this end? When will this ongoing trauma and pain and loss end for our people?
It puts fear into parents, particularly about their kids, their boys growing up, and there’s no support for these families. You know, they’re just reeling in loss and pain.
She once again called on the federal government to bring together state and territory leadership to figure out new efforts to address deaths in custody.
