Australia news live: Socceroos fans pack city sites; police arrest woman after death at aged care home in Sydney

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Socceroos draw with Paraguay

That’s it. It’s 0-0. If you want to relive everything that game had to offer, check out our sports blog:

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Updated at 00.03 EDT

Key events

Socceroos secure place in World Cup last 32 after nerve-shredding draw with Paraguay

You can read my colleague Jack Snape’s report here:

double quotation markFor Australian football, it was far from the best advertisement for the game, even as millions watched on TVs, live sites and in bars, with the match lacking the intensity and jeopardy of the Socceroos’ opening two World Cup matches. But Tony Popovic’s team will not mind, as they secured second place in Group D.

Read his full debrief here:

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Updated at 00.20 EDT

Socceroos draw with Paraguay

That’s it. It’s 0-0. If you want to relive everything that game had to offer, check out our sports blog:

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Updated at 00.03 EDT

Caitlin Cassidy

Sydney crowd hopeful but nervous

After a goalless 80 minutes in San Fransisco, the mood at the Vic on the Park in Sydney’s inner west is a mixture of jubilation and fear. A few “Aussie Aussie Aussies” have rung out, and more than a few spurring cries when the ball has reached Australia’s final third.

Sophie and her year 11 son Orson were also here when Australia went down 2-0 to the USA early last Saturday morning. He’s ditching school for the last day of term, and she’s quietly working away from her phone.

She tells Guardian Australia:

double quotation markI’ve been on my Slack channel just checking things, but this is of national importance. It’s important to be here. I really want Oscar to hear a goal in the pub, just to hear us lift.”

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Updated at 23.56 EDT

Lisa Cox

Legal challenge to NT fracking dismissed by federal court

A legal challenge to a fracking project in the Northern Territory has been dismissed by the federal court.

Lock the Gate sought to have Tamboran’s Shenandoah pilot project in the Beetaloo basin assessed under federal environmental laws. Five wells have been drilled for the appraisal project with more planned.

Lock the Gate argued the project should have been assessed under the federal water trigger to consider its impacts on water resources including groundwater.

The water trigger was expanded in 2023 from large coal mining and coal seam gas projects to include all unconventional gas projects.

Before Friday’s judgment, Lock the Gate said the outcome of the case would have significant implications for future fracking approvals in the NT and around the country.

Justice Nicholas Owens dismissed the case with costs.

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Sarah Basford Canales

Pocock hopeful for a goal

We are goalless just after half-time but David Pocock is hopeful the Socceroos star Nestory Irankunda will put the ball in the back of the net.

The ACT senator came to Canberra’s main city square to watch the match set-up on two screens that are far too small and low for the space.

Pocock said he was an Irankunda fan and hoped the Socceroos would clinch the match with a 2-0 win at full-time.

Time will only tell.

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Updated at 23.21 EDT

‘Near-perfect start’ to Socceroos match, Craig Foster says

Craig Foster had some thoughts a moment ago in Melbourne’s Federation Square just before the end of the first half of the Socceroo’s game.

Here’s what he had to say to the Guardian’s Matilda Boseley:

double quotation markSo thrilled, I’m just delighted. A brilliant start to the game … couldn’t be more perfect. …

They’re very respectful. It looks that as thought the Paraguay coach is more desperate for a point maybe than we are even. They’ve been the one to say, OK, we don’t need to take too much risk. And that’s so good for us, because we’re comfortable at the back.

So far, fingers crossed, it’s been a near-perfect start.

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Updated at 23.07 EDT

Jordyn Beazley

Woman faces 403 charges over allegations of $2m in improper strata transfers

A woman is facing 403 charges after she allegedly transferred more than $2m from strata trust accounts into a personal bank account and used the money to buy luxury goods.

Police said in a statement released a short time ago that a former employee of a strata business in the Coffs Harbour area tipped them off in January last year about alleged fraudulent activity at the business.

Police said in a statement:

double quotation markFollowing extensive inquiries, police established that a woman had allegedly transferred more than $2 million from strata trust accounts into a personal bank account.

Police will allege in court that the funds were used for personal expenditure including cryptocurrency investments, luxury goods, and an SUV.

Police arrested the 30-year-old woman yesterday and charged her with 403 counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage etc by deception.

She was due to appear before bail court today.

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Sarah Basford Canales

Canberra catches World Cup fever

The nation’s capital is not immune from World Cup fever with about 500 heading to Canberra’s main city square to watch the Socceroos take on Paraguay.

Two screens have been set up for the midday match after local politicians, including the ACT senator David Pocock, lobbied the ACT government to hold a public viewing event.

Spirits are high and there’s been the usual chants and cheers so far. At least one flare has been let off but it’s otherwise a family friendly event.

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Updated at 22.28 EDT

Police arrest woman believed to be known to elderly woman found dead at Rooty Hill aged care home

An elderly woman has been found dead at an aged care facility in Sydney’s west, with police arresting a woman believed to be known to her.

Emergency services were called to the aged care home on Evans Road in Rooty Hill at about 11.45pm on Thursday after reports a woman’s body had been found, NSW police said.

An investigation is under way after the body of a woman was found at an aged care facility in Sydney’s west overnight.

In a statement, police said:

double quotation markOfficers attached to Mount Druitt Police Area Command attended and located the body of an 84-year-old woman inside the building.

Police have established a crime scene, and detectives have commenced an investigation into the incident.

Police arrested a 53-year-old woman, believed to be known to the elderly woman, at the scene, the statement said. She was taken to Mount Druitt hospital for an assessment.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

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Updated at 22.25 EDT

Beef-up looms for world-first teen social media ban

Australia’s world-first teen social media ban will be strengthened to deal with potential legal challenges and improve the powers of the online watchdog, AAP reports.

Nearly eight months since the federal government barred children under 16 from apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook, Labor is planning further changes to hold tech companies accountable.

Government sources have confirmed Anthony Albanese plans to announce a beefing-up of the ban within weeks.

“This is leading the world, we should be proud of this,” the prime minister told Nine’s Today Show on Friday.

“What we’re looking at doing is any way that we can further strengthen the laws … if there are legal challenges,” he said.

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has previously raised concerns about the “thin scaffolding” of the ban and described it as a “very blunt force approach”.

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Updated at 23.01 EDT

‘Popovic is going to do it for us,’ says an optimistic Socceroos fan in Sydney’s inner west

Caitlin Cassidy

At the Golden Barley hotel in Sydney’s Enmore, some Australians are newer to football, continuing to call it soccer or turning out only during World Cups.

Not so for Nick, Robyn, Alan and Jim, who have been sitting right in front of the television at the pub since it opened, Guinnesses in hand.

Nick is fitted out in an authentic 1974 Socceroos jersey – marking the historic first year the Aussies qualified for a World Cup and scored their first ever point.

His friend Jim has been to three World Cups, including in West Germany in 1974.

Paradoxically, Nick and his partner Robyn actually miss the age-old tradition for Australians of waking up at ungodly hours of the night with their kids to watch the Socceroos play, thanks to punishing timezones.

“I miss the 2am games,” Nick says with a laugh.

“We were just saying this morning, we used to wake up in the middle of the night, it used to be really good … it’s a unique experience. A family experience.”

Alan is confident that the Socceroos will be victorious today.

“We have realistic expectations, we’re not world leaders but Popovic is going to do it for us.”

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Updated at 22.12 EDT

Caitlin Cassidy

Sydney pubs already heaving ahead of Socceroos match

At 11am on a wet Friday morning, pubs in Sydney’s inner west would usually be shut, or home to a couple of stragglers. Not so today, as hundreds of Socceroos fans pack in front of TV screens ahead of Australia’s crucial game against Paraguay.

It’s the first time in history a Socceroos World Cup game is being played entirely within AEST working hours, and there are a few punters drinking pints with their laptops out at the Golden Barley in Enmore in a sea of yellow and green, for what some are calling the “Great Socceroos Sickie”.

Small business owners Jamie Hayman and his brother Rick Hayman are among them. Rick owns HXD Built construction in the inner west and is plugging away on his laptop at 11am with his staff.

Rick says he’s been supporting the Socceroos “forever”.

double quotation markIt unites the community. That’s what you notice. Pubs get filled up, there’s all the talk around town, it’s really good to see.

Jamie says this is the first time he and his brother have come out early to a pub to support the Socceroos, and says he can “definitely see more support” for the team.

Asked what time they’ll shut the laptops, he replies: “Probably kickoff”.

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Updated at 21.41 EDT

Sarah Basford Canales

Palestinian human rights groups score strategic victory on Israel-bound defence exports

A trio of Palestinian human rights groups have scored a victory in the federal courts after reaching agreement with the defence minister to obtain a list of any decision-making documents related to Israel-bound export permits.

The groups – the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights – made the discovery application in federal court for arms export documents in April but on Wednesday reached agreement that the defence minister would produce the list by 17 July.

The Palestinian groups, represented by the Australian Centre for International Justice, will now need to request access for those documents, which could still be subject to public interest immunity claims.

The groups are seeking to determine whether any permits were erroneously granted due to a failure to properly assess the possibility the exports could be used to facilitate serious human rights abuses in Gaza.

The ruling shows an export permit still in effect remains under scrutiny, according to the government’s affidavit which has not been made public.

Shawan Jabarin, the general director of Al-Haq, said:

double quotation markWe should not have to go to court to understand who is arming the Israeli settler-colonial apartheid regime. Palestinians are not speaking about arms exports in the abstract. We are speaking about bombs falling on families, homes, hospitals, schools, refugee camps and entire communities. When states refuse to disclose what they are exporting, they are also refusing to confront the human consequences of the weapons systems they help sustain.

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Updated at 21.16 EDT

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