2.25pmNo threat to Australia after foreign interference arrest, says AFPBy Alexander DarlingBarrett also stressed there was no threat to Australia as a result of the man’s alleged offending, nor had there ever been.“There is nothing to suggest he received any military training in Australia, and in terms of the training he undertook in Russia, that is part of our ongoing investigations,” she said.The 27-year-old dual Russian-Australian citizen was arrested on Thursday afternoon.iStock“There is no risk of him working for an Australian government agency that would pose a risk to Australia.“The 27-year-oldd will face a Brisbane court later today, and Barrett mentioned there could be further charges laid as officers are now examining a number of electronic devices and other items seized when he was arrested on Thursday.Barrett did not go into detail about what police meant when they said the man “believed” he was providing information to Russian intelligence. 2.15pmAFP: Accused allegedly offended both in Australia and overseasBy Alexander DarlingFederal police for the first time have charged a Russian-linked citizen with attempting to engage in foreign interference.A Victorian man arrested in Queensland is accused of travelling to Russia in late 2024 and undertaking military-style training.Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett.Australian Financial ReviewHe then allegedly travelled to Ukraine in 2025, joining Ukraine’s armed forces and feeding information about their personnel to people he believed to be from Russian intelligence services.AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the investigation began in June.2.03pmAFP charges Russian-Australian citizen with attempted foreign interferenceBy Alexander DarlingEarlier today, we learned federal police had charged a dual Russian-Australian citizen with attempted foreign interference.The AFP has just released more details, specifically alleging that the man was trying to provide information about Ukrainian military activities to people he believed worked for Russian intelligence.The 27-year-old Victorian man is expected to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court later today.More to come.1.56pmSwans AFLW team speaks as men’s team scandal continuesBy Alexander DarlingThe Swans AFL Women’s team says it’s “extremely disappointed” with the scandal affecting the men’s side this week, and has urged people to keep showing them support.Five of the club’s men’s players were stood down for breaching club standards related to an incident at a Melbourne hotel on Sunday night, and a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault continues.AFLW players at Swans HQ on Friday.Sitthixay DitthavongAt a press conference this hour, Captain Lucy McEvoy said the AFLW side had been having open conversations about their feelings with the club, and men’s captain Callum Mills had addressed her team.“He was quite remorseful on behalf of the men’s program,” she said. “The respect we have for him and the way he’s handled himself this week is second to none.”1.36pmOrigin Energy hack: Dozens had their bank details accessed, retailer confirmsBy Alexander DarlingThe true scale of a major hack of Origin Energy has been revealed, with the retailer confirming some 60 customers had had their bank account number accessed.In an update on Friday, Origin revealed more details about the July incident, in which 900,000 current and former customers had various private details accessed.About 900,000 past and present customers were impacted by the breach.iStock EditorialOf this number, approximately 100 had their ID documents read, and 15,000 had their numbers associated with the government concession scheme accessed.A criminal investigation into the incident continues, and earlier this week, the AFR reported the investigation was focusing on a former employee of tech services company Accenture, who took the information as part of a plan to extort the company for money.In a statement, Origin’s CEO Frank Calabria said it was supporting all 900,000 people affected and had taken steps to enhance its security systems to prevent such an incident from happening again.12.18pmBrethren in ‘extraordinary’ position, says spokesmanBy Michael BachelardOn the day this masthead has revealed the link between the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and far-right agitators at the last election, the church’s spokesman, Lloyd Grimshaw, says it’s “bizarre” that he’s been called to provide evidence before the committee investigating the campaign.“We’re put in an extraordinary position, and no church would do that in this country, and we’ve been forced to do it because of all this media reporting,” he says. “We’re put in an extraordinary position … and it’s a bizarre thing that we would have to be forced into this position.”Grimshaw has now conceded he is trying to give evidence for the church secretariat and the church “fellowship” itself, but some of the committee members have pointed out that his answers have been rather vague.Steph Hodgins-May, a Greens senator from Victoria, became particularly frustrated when she was trying to get to the bottom of Bruce Hales’ election call to arms that Australia needed to “smile again”.Perhaps, she suggested, Bruce Hales himself should be called to give evidence, “so he can speak directly to the veracity and the intent behind those comments that he’s made, because I don’t know if I’m going to get much further with Mr Grimshaw on that”. The committee agreed to discuss that at the next meeting.11.54amSwans captain ‘deeply shocked’ by alleged sexual assaultBy Billie Eder and Jonathan DrennanSydney Swans captain Callum Mills says he is “deeply shocked and disappointed” by the events of this week and said the five players who have been suspended for the remainder of the 2026 season have “let us down”.Fronting the media for the first time since James Jordon, Chad Warner, Isaac Heeney, Riley Bice and Nick Blakey were stood down for breaching club standards amid a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault, Mills apologised to the AFL community and staff for the “actions of a few within our group”.The Swans captain, along with coach Dean Cox, would not be drawn on questions about what happened in the hotel room due to the ongoing police investigation. That includes whether there were Swans staff members in the room at the Pullman Hotel in East Melbourne at the time of the alleged incident.Read more here. 11.26amBrethren spokesman hits out at PM’s ‘cult’ remarkBy Michael BachelardThe Liberal Party has now taken over the questioning of Lloyd Grimshaw of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, under the member for Forrest, Ben Small. Small had a very large contingent of church members bussed into his electorate to campaign on his behalf, according to submissions to the committee.Small gives Grimshaw the opportunity to argue it was church members who were the real victims here.Two posters, authorised by Freedom Party founder Morgan C. Jonas, linked to the Brethren during the 2025 election.“We get abusive emails sent to the church via the ‘contact us’ form on the website, and we’ve even had you know households, family households of Brethren members getting door knocks at night with people knocking on their front doors, and when they open the door, they ask them, ‘You know, are you part of a cult?’“It’s pretty common following media articles in this country that get written from time to time with outrageous stuff about the church.” Small is now inviting Grimshaw to attack the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who described the church as a “cult” during the campaign.“I don’t think it’s appropriate at all,” Grimshaw says. “To use the words that he used to describe the church is offensive, and it’s hurtful, and it’s untrue, and you know it has an impact.”11.18amCanavan defends WA’s GST dealBy Brittany BuschNationals leader Matt Canavan has defended the GST deal with Western Australia despite a scathing interim report by the Productivity Commission released this week that identified the agreement as a costly mistake.Asked how the Coalition could justify supporting the deal while calling for the government to find more savings in the budget, Canavan told News24 it was important to promote resource development.“It was an absurd situation about 10 years ago where WA’s share of the GST fell to just a third, 30 cents in the dollar. It was ridiculously low,” he said, adding he was proud it was the Liberals and Nationals who struck the deal.“The Productivity Commission that you just mentioned issued a report in 2018 saying that very thing – that that scheme was not working. It was punishing states that did develop their resources and therefore not growing our economy.”11.09amFurther questions for Brethren spokesmanBy Michael BachelardOne of the biggest questions this parliamentary committee is investigating about the conduct of the 2025 election is whether the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church should have declared itself a significant third-party campaigner.It’s important. The threshold for a declaration is $250,000. The church (or church members individually, if you believe Plymouth Brethren Christian Church spokesman Lloyd Grimshaw) spent millions on this campaign.The catch for this church is that significant third parties cannot be charities. And if the church and its various charitable entities were to lose that status, it would cost them millions and millions of dollars.Exclusive Brethren secretly paid far-right activists to perform stunts disrupting the federal election.VariousWhen the British charities commission tried it a few years ago it led to an intense, months-long lobbying campaign, and the British commission finally caved.To get technical for a moment, Grimshaw says he’s speaking for the church, but he’s told the committee actually he’s here for a little charity, Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Limited. It’s the church’s secretariat.The church itself is actually is an unincorporated “fellowship” of about 50,000 members globally. The only way the committee could properly quiz the church is to call its leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales.So when Grimshaw tells the committee “we certainly didn’t register because we weren’t a significant third party,” he’s saying the church itself had nothing to do with the campaign, and the secretariat spent nothing, so doesn’t need to register.Then he likens the Brethren to the Catholic Church, saying: “the idea … that the Catholic Church should have registered as a third party because all their members were volunteering … I just can’t see the equivalence”.Yeah. You just don’t see the massive level of co-ordination among the Catholics as you saw here. As a reminder, this is a list of Brethren “volunteers” bussed or flown into Bendigo, put up at hotels, all organised like a military campaign. There’s probably $250,000 worth of spending right here in just one out of dozens of electorates where they campaigned.1 of 3