Afternoon Update: Lehrmann admits to lying in TV interview; open letter from Jewish Australians urges permanent ceasefire; and NZ scraps smoking ban

Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Good afternoon. Bruce Lehrmann was back in the witness box today, where he faced cross-examination in his defamation trial against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.

Under questioning from Ten’s silk, Matt Collins KC, Lehrmann admitted to lying during an interview with Channel 7’s Spotlight program about his reason for lying to his chief of staff, Fiona Brown, about why he entered Parliament House after hours on the evening Brittany Higgins alleged he raped her. Lehrmann also admitted to lying to Liberal senator Linda Reynolds in his “show cause” letter.

Top news

Omar Atshan, 17, is hugged by his mother after being released from an Israeli prison in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

Successful third exchange of hostages and Palestinians held in Israeli jails | The Red Cross has confirmed the successful transfer and release of 17 Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as 19 Palestinians who were detained in Israeli prisons. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told the US president, Joe Biden, that Israel is set to resume its military campaign in Gaza, but he welcomed the possibility of 10 hostages being freed for each extra day of truce. Syria said Damascus international airport was again put out of service by an Israeli airstrikes while Yemen’s Houthis rebels say they have seized another Israeli-linked ship. And in the US, three students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded by a gunman in Vermont while en route to a family dinner.

Open letter from Jewish Australians calls for permanent ceasefire | An open letter, signed by more than 850 members of the Australian Jewish community, has urged the Australian government to call for a permanent ceasefire.

Michael Pezzullo, the former home affairs department head, has been sacked. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Home affairs department secretary Michael Pezzullo sacked | The longtime boss of Australia’s home affairs department has been removed from the top job after an independent inquiry found Pezzullo (pictured) had breached the government’s code of conduct at least 14 times, including for using his power for personal benefit.

At least 45 more people released from indefinite immigration detention | The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said the reason a “second cohort” had been released in addition to the initial 93 was that “we have received advice that this all needs to apply to people who have some kind of legal matter on foot with the commonwealth” such as a court or tribunal challenge against a visa cancellation.

Minister Tanya Plibersek and Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Labor and Greens reach agreement on Murray-Darling Basin plan | An additional 450 gigalitres of environmental water will flow to South Australia by 2027 as part of the Labor-Greens deal that will see the plan legislated. “This is a landmark win for South Australia,” said Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young in a joint press conference with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek (both pictured).

Italy defeat Australia to win Davis Cup | Italy fulfilled their potential as one of the most promising tennis nations in the world by defeating Australia 2-0 to become Davis Cup champions for the first time since 1976.

Cigarette butts in an ashtray

New Zealand scraps world-first smoking ban | New Zealand’s new conservative government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts – a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be “catastrophic” for Māori communities.

World’s biggest iceberg moving beyond Antarctic waters | A23a split from the Antarctic’s Filchner ice shelf in 1986, but it became stuck to the ocean floor and remained for many years in the Weddell Sea. Not any more. Recent satellite images reveal that the iceberg is now drifting quickly past the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, aided by strong winds and currents.

In pictures

From Spanish mission extravaganzas to art deco curves: other people’s homes

Sandy Weir’s delightful Instagram account, full of architectural treasures combined with cheeky captions, has been turned into a new book. With styles ranging across mid-century, art deco and the occasional turret, Other People’s Homes offers us a new perspective on houses that you could simply walk past without taking a second look. Click here to view the gallery.

What they said …

Adam Bandt

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“We’re in the middle of a climate crisis. Labor is backing new coal and gas fields and an energy policy in the middle of a climate crisis should be based on helping businesses get off gas.” – Adam Bandt

The Greens leader warns climate protests will grow if Labor allows new coal and gas mines.

In numbers

A coalition of Australian Education Union representatives have delivered tens of thousands of postcards to the prime minister urging Labor to commit to fully funding under-resourced public schools.

Before bed read

A classic Australian suburb with single family houses

Australian housing wealth is meaningless, destructive and fundamentally changing our society, writes economist Alan Kohler.

“The houses we live in, the places we call home and bring up our families in, have been turned into speculative investment assets by the 50 years of government policy failure, financialisation and greed that resulted in 25 years of exploding house prices.”

Daily word game

Today’s starter word is: INFO. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.

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