TRANSCRIPT
- Donald Trump avoids prison as judge sentences him in historic case.
- Los Angeles continues to try to contain devastating wildfires.
- And in the A-League, Western United pinch a stunning 4-3 win over Melbourne Victory.
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United States President-elect Donald Trump has managed to avoid punishment after being found guilty of paying hush money to a porn star.
Even though the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records carried potential jail time, Justice Juan Merchan opted to hand Trump the mildest sentence possible of an unconditional discharge.
This places a judgement of guilt on Trump's permanent record without any other legal penalty such as jail time, a fine or probation.
Trump had pleaded not guilty and has vowed to appeal the guilty verdict.
Before the judge's decision was made, President Trump once again accused the New York court of being a tool in a political witch-hunt.
"This has been a very terrible experience. I think it's been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system. It's been a political witch-hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so I'd lose the election. That obviously didn't work. I won the election in a massive landslide. The people of this country understand what's gone on, this has been a weaponisation of government. They call it lawfare. It's never happened to an extent like this, never happened in our country before. I'd just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly."
Trump is now set to become the first President to enter office after being found guilty of a felony level crime.
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A pause in the fierce winds that have fanned devastating wildfires in Los Angeles this week have helped crews make progress in bringing the infernos under control.
The Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire already rank as the most destructive in Los Angeles history, claiming at least 10 lives, destroying nearly 10,000 structures and consuming more than 13,750 hectares.
Mayor Karen Bass from the City of Los Angeles says more strong winds are forecast to return.
"We know that we're going to have a possible increase in the force of the winds at the beginning of next week and getting Los Angeles prepared, doing everything we can to save lives, that is our number one job, to protect people's homes, to protect people's businesses, and to prepare to rebuild Los Angeles in a much better way. We're going to stand united. We're going to stand together. And we are not going to allow politics to interfere."
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says people and organisations need to be prepared for more extreme weather events due to climate change.
It comes following the Bureau of Meteorology's announcement that 2024 was the second hottest year on record in Australia.
The Bureau said the nation's mean average was at 1.46 degrees Celsius higher than the 1961-1990 baseline average.
Mr Albanese says climate change is set to trigger even stronger weather events across the globe, leading to more disasters.
"Climate change is real. It doesn't mean that every event that occurs which is an extreme weather event is because of climate change. What it does mean is that the science tells us there will be more extreme weather events and they'll be more intense. And that is what we are seeing playing out over recent not years but decades. We're seeing the hottest years on record being reached year after year and we're seeing, as well, more extreme weather events."
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The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip has passed 46,000 according to Palestinian health authorities, while a new study says the toll could be much higher.
The Gaza Health Ministry says a further 109,378 others have been injured in the enclave since October 7 2023.
And a new peer-reviewed statistical analysis published in The Lancet journal estimates the health ministry has been likely undercounting the death toll by about 40 per cent.
The researchers from London, Yale and elsewhere assessed the death toll from the first nine months of Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza, finding an estimated 64,260 had been killed as of June 2024 in comparison to the 37,877 recorded at the time.
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Western United have come back from behind three times and scored two stoppage goals to pinch a stunning 4-3 win over Melbourne Victory in a classic A-League Men derby at AAMI Park.
John Aloisi's team cemented themselves as the comeback kings with Japanese striker Hiroshi Ibusuki the hero, slotting his second goal of the night in the 94th minute to break the 3-3 deadlock and silence the Victory crowd.
Aloisi told Paramount Plus that his team's effort was a strong one.
"I thought that second half that we were in pretty much control of the game and we were pushing and when it went three, three, the boys just, they want to win. They don't want to draw, they want to win. And you could sense that they just kept on pushing."
