HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

Current Affairs
Written By Emily Guy

JULIAN ASSANGE’S TRIAL

After over a decade in the news, Julian Assange has made headlines again amidst his final attempt to avoid extradition to the U.S. 

Julian Assange is an Australian computer programmer who set up the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks was used to publish more than 10 million censored and confidential government documents that pertained to war, spying, and corruption (Seidler & Gillespie, 2024). The purpose of this, Assange defended, was to challenge Western power structures and advocate for Human Rights. Assange’s staunch defenders claim that he is a journalist who has been instrumental in uncovering the secrets of the powerful and defending freedom of speech, while his adversaries accuse him of simply being a narcissist (Said-Moorhouse, Rebaza, & Cassidy, 2024). 

The battle began in 2010 when WikiLeaks published documents relating to the US-led war in Iraq and Afghanistan. These documents detailed secret diplomatic dealings between foreign leaders as well as exposing that the U.S. armed forces were responsible for 15,000 civilian deaths which had not been previously documented. The former U.S. Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning who had handed over this information went on to serve time in prison, while Assange was never convicted of any crime (Seidler & Gillespie, 2024). 

In 2012, following an arrest warrant for two sexual assault allegations in Sweden, Assange sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. It was during this time that the U.S. initiated its legal case against him. Their case alleged that the documents he leaked threatened U.S. security and in turn innocent lives. However, his refuge in the embassy prevented his extradition. Seven years later, in 2019, the embassy revoked his protection leading to his immediate arrest by the UK authorities on the same day (Seidler & Gillespie, 2024). 

Last week Assange's final bid to appeal his extradition to the U.S commenced. There he will face 18 different charges and a maximum sentence of 175 years behind bars. A growing number of international organizations has requested that the UK not proceed with the extradition, including a group of Australian MPs, the UN Human Rights Council, and Amnesty International, claiming that doing so would detrimentally subvert the public’s right to be informed (Said-Moorhouse, Rebaza, & Cassidy, 2024). 

Angus Brayshaw’s retirement

Angus Brayshaw, a 28 year old Melbourne AFL player, has been medically retired because of persistent concussions he sustained while playing footy. Unfortunately Brayshaw is one of many players including Paddy McCartin from Sydney, Marcus Adams from Brisbane, Max Lynch from Hawthron and more who were recently forced into early retirements after repeated head knocks (Jovanovski & Waterworth, 2024).

Concussions are increasingly cutting careers shortin many contact sports because of the growing awareness of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in those with a history of repeated traumatic brain injuries including concussions, with symptoms occurring years after the onset of head knocks. These symptoms include a lack of impulse control, aggression, depression, paranoia, anxiety,  and mood swings (Mckee, 2018).

The AFL is currently facing two class actions, one being led by former Geelong player Max Rooke who suffered at least 23 significant head knocks in his senior AFL career. The other class action is led by Katherine Tuck, wife of Richmond player Shane Tuck who was found to have had CTE after his early death. All in all there are 60 former players who sustained concussions in their careers as well as their families actioning the case against the AFL. Anita Frawley, the wife of the late Danny Frawley who was found to have been suffering from CTE after his suicide in 2019, said in a Parliamentary inquiry that the AFL was not doing enough to manage the long term effects of concussions (Convery, 2023). 

There is mounting evidence suggesting that concussions are detrimentally impacting the cognition and mental health of ex-players, which is pushing the AFL to make drastic changes to the structure of the game and their concussion procedures.

inflation stats

In terms of good news, Australia's inflation has fallen to its lowest level in two years. Due to a slowing increase in food and fuel prices, the consumer price index (CPI) was reported to be 4.1% in the final three months of 2023, which was expected to be 4.3% down from 5.4% in the previous quarter (Hannam, 2024a). As for the January stats, the inflation rate held at 3.4% which was below the predicted rate of 3.6%. 

While 4.1% is not low by historical standards, it is the lowest inflation rate in several years. This data shows that Australia is well on track to be within its target range of 2-3% next year and at 2.5% by 2026. This has raised hopes that the Reserve bank will cut interest rates next month, after increasing the cash rate 13 consecutive times in 2022 and 2023 (Hannam, 2024b).

Sources:

Emily Guy
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