Australia
Bondi Beach shooting claims 16 lives
Sixteen people, including one of the gunmen, were killed in a fatal shooting on Bondi Beach on Sunday evening. The shooting took place during an event marking the first day of Hannukkah at Bondi Beach, and New South Wales authorities said so far 15 people have died, including a 10-year-old girl. The two gunmen who opened fire on the beach were father and son. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the shooting was “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores”. NSW Premier, Chris Minns, echoed Albanese’s sentiments and urged those looking to help in a practical way to donate blood. Following the attack, NSW police have ramped up security at all Hanukkah-related events. One of the gunmen, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was shot and killed by police and the other, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, remains in hospital under police guard. Heavily armed police have raided the shooter's home in Bonnyrigg in south-west Sydney and the Airbnb in Campsie they were staying in. NSW police have confirmed they are not looking for a third shooter. “The 50-year-old male is a licensed firearms holder,” NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said. “He has six firearms licensed to him. We are sa
Aussie exchange glitch ends in millions in Bitcoin fraud
United Kingdom police have confiscated £28 million (A$55 million) in assets from an international Bitcoin fraud gang that was alleged to have exploited an anomaly on an Australian cryptocurrency trading website. The investigation centres around a trader called James Parker from Blackpool, who identified the vulnerability eight years ago. Over £20 million in monetary proceeds are said to have been laundered with the aid of Stephen Boys of Clayton-le-Moors, who earned the nickname “Rodney” from the U.K. hit TV series “Only Fools and Horses”. Police investigations revealed that extravagant spending by Boys included £5,000 gift cards distributed on streets and cars purchased for random pub acquaintances. In addition, they purchased luxury watches, houses, cars, and designer goods, including a £600 wine cooler. Boys also admitted to carrying £1 million in cash to pay for a villa from Russians. He also admitted to carrying £60,000 in payoffs to corrupt officials to maintain his money laundering operations. Overall, the police recovered 445 in Bitcoin valued at around £22 million. While Parker did not live to be prosecuted, his co-conspirators received sentences in January 2023, including Boys, 61, who was j
Human Rights Watch slams Australia for jailing children
The Human Rights Watch has lambasted Australia for jailing children in their latest annual report, saying the government had “increasingly violated the rights of children in the criminal justice system in 2024”. The report pointed to facilities designed for adults in Queensland and Western Australia where authorities had detained and the Northern Territory government lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 12 years to 10. This comes as Queensland Premier, David Crisafulli, this week promised he would be making “many more” changes to strengthen the state’s already tough youth justice laws. "It's gone from bad to worse. What we do know as well in Australia is that there's no Human Rights Act,” said Daniela Gavshon, the Australian Director of Human Rights Watch. “So there's no overarching piece of legislation that puts all the human rights regulations and rules and responsibilities into one place. Australia is the only liberal democracy that doesn't have a Human Rights Act."
Australian man sentenced over $1.9tn Bitcoin lawsuit
An Australian computer scientist who claimed to have invented Bitcoin under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto" was sentenced in a London court to 12 months in prison for contempt of court, suspended for two years. Craig Wright breached a court order by suing Block, a payments company owned by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, for $1.9 trillion. Wright was previously prohibited from making Bitcoin claims in May 2024. According to Judge James Mellor, Wright repeatedly lied and forged documents to support his false claim to be the founder of Bitcoin. In Wright's lawsuit against Block, the court found a clear violation of the order, which led to the contempt charge. Although Wright attended his sentencing hearing remotely, he reportedly refused to divulge his location, stating that he was in Singapore or Indonesia. Wright was ordered to pay $290,000 in costs within a fortnight. A group of tech companies and cryptocurrency companies, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), argued Wright's lawsuit was a publicity stunt. According to COPA's lawyer, Jonathan Hough, Wright had shown no remorse and remained pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for his actions. In his appeal, Wright maintains he was not in