State’s police minister says buyback ‘doesn’t focus on keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists and criminals’, leaving NSW only clear supporter of plan

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Queensland has rejected key recommendations from the Bondi royal commission’s interim report, insisting plans for a national gun buyback will not keep weapons “out of the hands of terrorists and criminals”.

The report, handed down by commissioner Virginia Bell on Thursday, raised doubts about whether efforts to establish a national gun register after the 2022 police killings at Wieambilla in Queensland had been “unduly leisurely”. Bell recommended the federal government and the states speed up a jointly funded weapons buyback scheme.

The 155-page interim report released on Thursday shows how little is known – and can be shared – about the 14 December shooting

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If there’s one thing that’s clear from the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion’s 155-page interim report, it’s how much about the Bondi massacre remains unknown – and how little of what is known can be shared with the public.

More than a third of the recommendations from the report – which was released on Thursday – were confidential, although the Albanese government plans to implement all of them.

TOKYO, April 30 — A man wielding a hammer wounded five people in Tokyo, including a teenager who was allegedly struck in the face, local media said Thursday.

Violent crime is rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.

The 44-year-old suspect, who is on the run from police, attacked two teenage boys near his house in Fussa city in the Japanese capital on Wednesday.

One victim sustained a severe facial injury, while the other suffered a minor shoulder injury, according to NHK and Kyodo News.

Police officers rushed to the scene, where the suspect sprayed them with an unknown substance and fled, Kyodo said.

Three officers were injured in the attack.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police declined to comment to AFP on the case. — AFP

Interim report contains 14 recommendations, after inquiry examined agencies’ actions before the attack in which 15 people were killed

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Sydney’s Jewish community told police of a “high” threat of an attack at December’s Chanukah by the Sea festival at Bondi beach, but New South Wales police appeared not to have completed a comprehensive risk assessment for the event, an interim royal commission report has found.

The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, established in the wake of December’s terror attack, found no gap in current laws that could have prevented the shooting. But it did call for greater coordination of policing at Jewish festivals and events.

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• Warning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have died

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Chalmers understands calls for gas export tax, but says government focused on getting fuel for Australians

Chalmers said he understands calls to tax gas exports, but maintained the government was set on securing international supply arrangements during the ongoing fuel crisis. He told ABC News:

I understand that there is a constituency in the Australian community to go further … But there are also, as the prime minister said, really good reasons to prioritise these international supply arrangements particularly during this oil shock.

All of us have been prioritising getting fuel for Australia and for Australians to keep the economy ticking over and that’s why there are good reasons for the comments that the prime minister made yesterday.

We’ve been very upfront with people and said when we think about the intergenerational unfairness in the budget, in our economy, in our society more broadly, a couple of the drivers of that are in housing, are in the tax system.

Mining magnate also claims children are being taught to be ashamed of the Australian flag in a speech to 4,000 people on the Sydney Opera House steps

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Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, called for immigrants’ social media to be screened and said children are being taught to be ashamed of the Australian flag in untelevised remarks before an Anzac memorial service on the steps of Sydney Opera House on Friday.

Rinehart’s public appearance was attended by about 4,000 people and sponsored by her company, Hancock Prospecting, and RSL New South Wales.

US judge orders release of a woman and her five children who were family of the 2025 Colorado fire attack suspect

A woman and her five children, whose immigration detention of more than 10 months marked the longest family detention under Donald Trump’s second administration, were released on Thursday hours after a judge’s order, their lawyer said.

US district judge Fred Biery of the western district of Texas ordered the family’s release.

Authors including Evelyn Araluen and Melissa Lucashenko say they won’t work with publisher after it dumps Jazz Money’s book illustrated by Matt Chun, who called Bondi victims ‘affluent beneficiaries of imperialism’

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An Australian publishing house has cancelled the publication of a children’s book by an award-winning Indigenous poet over comments the book’s illustrator made about the victims of the Bondi beach terror attack, whom he called “affluent beneficiaries of imperialism”.

University of Queensland said on Wednesday its publishing house would not proceed with the publication of Bila, A River Cycle, written by Jazz Money and illustrated by Matt Chun, and was considering “recycling options” for already printed copies.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex also met with emergency workers and Sydney Jewish Museum representatives on final day of Australia trip

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Prince Harry and Meghan have met survivors of the Bondi beach terror attack as they wind up their Australian tour.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are wrapping up their trip on Friday, making the most of the autumn sun with a Sydney Harbour boat ride alongside Invictus Australia representatives, before attending a Super Rugby Pacific match.

Court finds law – which effectively meant protesters could not march without risk of arrest – is unconstitutional

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New South Wales’ highest court has struck down an anti-protest law brought in after the Bondi beach terror attack which gave police the power to restrict marches, including at the anti-Herzog rally earlier this year.

The court of appeal handed down its findings on Thursday after three activist groups – the Blak Caucus, the Palestine Action Group and Jews Against the Occupation ’48 – filed a constitutional challenge in early January against the legislation.

Israel is not only committing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, but is also attacking Lebanon and acting in concert with the U.S. administration in its aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran