Daniel Duggan’s family to challenge extradition to US in federal court – as it happened​on January 14, 2025 at 6:27 am

Here’s the full story from Catie McLeod, on news that nine of Sydney’s northern beaches have been closed after ball-shaped debris washed ashore:

The New South Wales government has raised its pay offer to rail unions as it attempts to prevent worsening disruptions across Sydney’s rail network resulting from industrial action.

Eight months into negotiations for a new pay deal, and amid ongoing proceedings in the Fair Work Commission and federal court, transport minister Jo Haylen announced an improved 13% pay rise plus 1% super rise across four years offer – up from the government’s starting point of 9.5% offer over three years, but much lower than the combined rail unions’ demands of 32% over four years.

Haylen said the sweetened pay offer – which also includes an additional 1% pay rise from mutual gains bargaining – was made possible due to an agreement to merge the two state bodies that run Sydney trains and regional trains over the next four years.

Merging the two organisations will lead to productivity gains and financial savings that will fund an additional 1% rise.

The offer, which will be formally made to unions today, follows months of rolling industrial action, which included threats of network-wide work bans before reaching a crescendo when rail unions ditched plans to reduce services on New Years Eve.

Without a deal, unions are set to proceed with planned industrial action which includes observing speed reductions that have gradually been decreasing. From tomorrow, some trains are set to slow to a speed of about 20km/h, far below their potential running speed of 80km/h, with commuters warned to expect delayed services.

‘Ignorant’ man convicted over trans rally Nazi salute

A young man who performed a Nazi salute to disrupt a march in support of transgender people has been convicted but not jailed, with a magistrate describing his behaviour as unacceptable.

AAP reports that Felix John Jerzy Kiera made the gesture after stepping in front of the Trans Day of Resistance Rally, an event held to protest the marginalisation of trans and non-binary people on 23 November.

The 21-year-old was immediately arrested by police officers attending the march, which was held at Newtown in Sydney’s inner west.

Today, he pleaded guilty in Newtown Local Court to one count of knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol in public without a reasonable excuse. Kiera was supported by his father in the courtroom and handed up a letter of remorse.

He told Magistrate Alexander Mijovich, “I was ignorant, Your Honour.”

His Legal Aid lawyer argued for a non-conviction, saying the gesture was brief and did not incite anyone else to join in. However, the magistrate opted to convict the 21-year-old and impose a $1000 fine, and said:

The message has to go out to the community that this is just unacceptable in any event.

SpaceX debris landed in Australia in 2022

Just circling back to our earlier post, with news Qantas has been forced to delay several of its flights to South Africa amid warnings of falling debris from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

You may remember in 2022 that space debris found in the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales was found to belong to a craft built by Musk’s SpaceX company.

As Natasha May reported at the time, Brad Tucker, an ANU astrophysicist, first realised the timing and location of the debris falling coincided with a SpaceX spacecraft which re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 7am on 9 July, 20 months after its launch in November 2020.

You can read the full story below:

Nine Sydney beaches close after ball-shaped debris washes ashore

Nine Sydney beaches have been closed after grey ball-shaped debris was found washed ashore. Northern Beaches Council advised beachgoers to avoid the following beaches until further notice:

• Manly

• Dee Why

• Long Reef

• Queenscliff

• Freshwater

• North Curl Curl

• South Curl Curl

• North Steyne

• North Narrabeen

The council was alerted to the debris via the EPA and is working closely to collect samples for testing, it said.

So far, most samples identified are marble-sized with a few larger in size. The Council is organising the safe removal of the matter and is inspecting other beaches.

Last October, thousands of mystery balls washed up on Sydney beaches and were later revealed to be consistent with human-generated waste. It forced the closure of multiple beaches.

Qantas has been forced to delay several of its flights to South Africa at the last minute due to warnings of falling debris from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets reentering earth.

Ben Holland, head of Qantas’ operations centre, said there was often little advanced notice of where the rockets would fall over the southern Indian Ocean – the reentry zone chosen by the space company due to its remoteness – causing the airline to delay flights on its Sydney-Johannesburg route.

Over the past few weeks we’ve had to delay several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney due to advice received from the US Government regarding the re-entry of SpaceX rockets over an extensive area of the Southern Indian Ocean.

While we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant we’ve had to delay some flights just prior to departure. Our teams notify customers of changes to their flight as soon as we know it will be impacted.

Customers generally understand this is outside of airlines’ control and that we can’t fly in the area when the rocket re-entry is taking place. We’re in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the areas and time windows for the rocket re-entries to minimise future disruption to our passengers on the route.

Tropical low forming north of Pilbara in WA

The Bureau of Meteorology says tropical low, labelled 10U, is gradually forming to the north of the Pilbara in Western Australia.

A second tropical low, labelled 11U, may form off the Kimberley coast later this week, it said.

Rishworth wraps up speech, launching national autism strategy

Amanda Rishworth wrapped up her speech, saying that the national strategy provides “a solid pathway forward to a more inclusive Australia, where autistic people are supported and empowered to flourish in all aspects of their lives.”

I am really excited to see what we can achieve together over the next months and years ahead. Thank you for everyone who dedicated their time, their effort, their stories, their lived experience to help create a strategy that’s truly made for and by autistic people. I look forward to continuing to work with you into the future.

Government to develop resources to improve autism diagnosis process

Amanda Rishworth said another common theme throughout consultation was a lack of resources to support people before and after their autism diagnosis.

Through this action plan, we will develop resources to support autistic people to access affordable, quality diagnoses and ensure these resources are in formats that are accessible for autistic people, such as through video, visual information, easy to read and in languages other than English.

Rishworth also launching first action plan to implement strategy

Along with the national autism strategy, Amanda Rishworth is also launching the first action plan – “which outlines the immediate practical steps the government will take to achieve the strategies, vision and outcomes”.

She said the immediate actions would be funded to create tangible improvements in priority areas – employment, social connection, better support through the diagnostic journey and community understanding.

Rishworth said one of the key funding areas in the first instance would be peer support, because “not feeling accepted or understood was something we heard repeatedly through our consultations on the strategy”.

Having someone walk alongside you as a peer, share your journey and exchange advice can make all the difference, ensuring an autistic person doesn’t feel alone.

Rishworth says government was committed to working with Australians with autism to develop strategy

Amanda Rishworth said it was important for the government to work with autistic Australians while developing the strategy, to “promote greater inclusion and acceptance and ensure that spaces and places respond to the needs of autistic people”.

Our government really was committed to work with and for autistic people on this journey. We heard you when you told us that many barriers autistic people face happen every day in their lives, and this includes but is not limited to barriers to receiving good education, barriers to employment, barriers to navigating systems that are only suited to neurotypical people. This strategy lays the foundations to break down the barriers and create a more inclusive society.