No US extradition for Julian Assange

ASSANGE EXTRADITION BLOCKED

A London court has found that Australian journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US, the ABC reports, on the grounds his mental health would place him at suicide risk.

In her full 132-page judgment, Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected almost all other arguments put forward by Assange’s lawyers, including their position that the charges of espionage are politically motivated, and that he would not receive either a fair trail or First Amendment protections in the US.

However Baraitser found that Assange — who lives with severe depression, has been in custody since April 2019, and whose solitary isolation throughout COVID-19 warranted a call from the UN for his release — would be at risk of suicide if issued an extradition order and placed in “near-total isolation” in the US.

The decision has been welcomed by supporters such as Edward Snowden, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Assange’s mother Christine Assange, while Amnesty International declared it, “does not absolve the UK from having engaged in this politically-motivated process at the behest of the USA and putting media freedom and freedom of expression on trial”.

The US is expected to appeal, while Assange’s legal team will make a bail application on Wednesday.

Lifeline: 13 11 14.

CLUSTER HEADACHE

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the NSW government does not intend to alter COVID-19 restrictions this week after two cases were identified yesterday, the crowd size was halved for Thursday’s Test cricket match, and the state’s list of exposure sites grew to 63, including the BWS Berala from December 22 to New Year’s Eve.

In Victoria, the ABC notes that three new cases have been linked to the Black Rock Restaurant outbreak — all of whom were in isolation when they tested positive — while the list of exposure sites has grown to include Chadstone Shopping Centre and a McKinnon hairdressers. State health workers are also coming back early from holidays following reports of wait times of up to five hours at testing clinics over the weekend.

Elsewhere, Queensland has boosted its number of clinics, the ACT has ramped up border check points, and South Australia has launched the second round of its tourism voucher scheme.

Finally, the lower-cost, more-easily-storable Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been delivered for the first time in the UK, as the country battles a record-setting third wave that has seen more than 50,000 infections in the past six days.

PS: On the political front, The Australian ($) reports the Morrison government will spend $75 million in taxpayer funds on ads promoting its COVID-19 health and economic programs, which will cover: vaccines, tax cuts, skills training, wage subsidies, mental health, domestic violence, infrastructure, and safe travel.

A WHOLE RENEW WORLD

According to The Australian ($), Energy Security Board (ESB) chair Kerry Schott has warned Australia’s surge in renewable generation is outstripping expectations and could risk grid security without unified national policy and regulatory reform.

Schott’s comments come as the ESB’s latest report on the health of the national electricity market shows AEMO was forced to issue directions to generators at record rates in 2019-20, a figure impacted somewhat by the Black Summer bushfires knocking out transmission lines, and warns the renewables boom could push down energy prices to the point coal plants close earlier than expected.

Elsewhere, The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Morrison government has resubmitted 2030 emissions targets that, when first announced by Tony Abbott in 2015, were slammed as “pathetically inadequate” by climate groups.

RAFFENSPERGER V TRUMP

Finally, ahead of two runoff elections in Georgia on Tuesday that will determine which party controls the US Senate, Brad Raffensperger has acknowledged in an interview with ABC News that Donald Trump could potentially face a criminal investigation for demanding the Republican secretary of state “find” him 11,780 votes.

But Raffensperger — who, unlike the more than 150 federal colleagues who will refuse to certify December’s Electoral College vote this week, has refused to give in to Trump’s demands — said it would not be appropriate for his office to launch an investigation because of the potential conflict of interest.

PS: In a tidy bit of irony, Iraq War masterminds Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have joined several former defence secretaries in urging Trump not to use the US military to interfere with the country’s political system.