Morning everyone,

Many of you will know rugby league star Benji Marshall. This week, we saw him at his most vulnerable on TV.

My colleague Isabella Ross wrote all about it here.

But first, let's get you across the biggest news stories you need to know today, Thursday June 23.

1. Former Olympic swim coach charged with sex crimes.

Former renowned swimming coach Dick Caine has been charged with sexually abusing teenage girls he trained in Sydney's south more than 40 years ago.

The 76-year-old man, who has coached Olympic and world champion swimmers, was arrested at a home in Condell Park yesterday.

Acting Superintendent Chris Nicholson said Caine had been charged with nine offences in relation to girls who were 15 and 16. He faces six carnal knowledge charges and three indecent assault charges.

"We will allege that these offences occurred in a number of locations in and around the southern Sydney area in the mid 1970s," Supt Nicholson said.

"These allegations are very serious ... and the investigation remains ongoing. I'd also like to acknowledge the courage and the bravery of the victims who have come forward."

The world of Australian sport has been rocked to its core with the arrest of renowned swimming coach Dick Caine.

MORE: https://t.co/N0areOE2vx @RuthWW #9News pic.twitter.com/BJVTPW1NS5
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 22, 2022

NSW Police began investigating in January 2021 after receiving information about multiple sexual and indecent assaults of a teenage girl at a swimming school at Carss Park in the 1970s.

Kings Cross detectives established Strike Force Coco and uncovered allegations of sexual abuse of another teenage girl at the same school, also in the 1970s.

Caine appeared at Bankstown Local Court yesterday and was granted bail.

2. Grace Tame calling for superannuation loophole to be closed.

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame is calling on the federal government to close a legal loophole that allows paedophiles to quarantine their superannuation from sexual abuse survivors.

At the moment, victims who launch civil action for compensation cannot access any funds in the offender's superannuation accounts.

"Paedophiles are able to hide their assets in their super, which should be available to compensate survivors of abuse," she said, reports the ABC.

"Not only will this change provide valuable compensation for victim survivors, it has the added benefit of reducing the taxpayer burden of offender's crimes as well as introducing an additional financial deterrent element to offenders themselves," she wrote in a statement, also signed by the Carly Ryan Foundation and Fighters Against Childhood Abuse Australia (FACAA).

SUPER FOR SURVIVORS

ANNOUNCING: the GT Foundation’s new campaign with @FACAAus, @TeamCarlyCRF and Andrew Carpenter.

Under current law, convicted paedophiles can hide assets in super—to reduce wealth that could be used for victim compensation—making civil action pointless. pic.twitter.com/PPel5r5DK5
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) June 21, 2022

Labor was asked for comment on this reform while in opposition, but has not made any commitments.

3. Albanese surprised by Bandt's Australian flag stance.

Anthony Albanese says Greens leader Adam Bandt should reflect on his decision to remove an Australian flag from behind him at a press conference.

Bandt had the Australian flag set aside during a media conference this week so only the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were in camera shot. He said the Australian flag was a hurtful symbol for First Nations people.

The prime minister, who said he was "very proud" to stand in front of the flag, accused Bandt of missing the point of reconciliation.

"Reconciliation is about bringing people together on the journey that we need to undertake… it is undermined if people look for division rather than look for unity," said Albanese, who added the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to his media backdrop after being elected.

"I just say to Mr Bandt that he needs to think about the responses that have been made and reconsider his position and role to promote unity and work to promote reconciliation."

ICYMI The Australian flag was moved out of shot as Greens leader Adam Bandt fronted reporters on Monday. In front of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, he spoke to the “hurtful” symbols of Australia's colonial past. @NITV #auspol Read more: https://t.co/hha9fCo7EK pic.twitter.com/rVi2OLv0sY
— SBS News (@SBSNews) June 21, 2022

Greens senator and DjabWurrung, Gunnai, and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe said she "absolutely" removed the Australian flag from any appearance she made.

"The Australian flag does not represent me, my people. It represents the colonisation of these lands and it has no permission to be here," she told Network 10.

4. US gun-law reform edges closer, as Texas school 'to be demolished'.

The US has taken a step towards its first major gun-control legislation in decades, following two recent mass shooting events.

Senators on Tuesday evening local time voted to speed up the passage of a bipartisan package of measures to toughen federal gun laws.

The Senate is expected to vote on the 80-page bill this week before a two-week recess.

The legislation includes provisions that would help states keep firearms out of the hands of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others, and close the so-called 'boyfriend loophole' by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing intimate partners to whom they are not married.

The bill does not go as far as Democrats, including President Joe Biden, had sought. Still, if passed, it would be the most significant action to combat gun violence to emerge from Congress in years.

U.S. lawmakers are on track to pass the first major gun reform in decades. #9Today pic.twitter.com/V67fxLpAs0
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) June 22, 2022

Meanwhile, the mayor of Uvalde has announced the Texas primary school where a teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last month is to be demolished.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not give a timeline for when the school would be demolished, but said at a council meeting: "You can never ask a child to go back, or teacher to go back, in that school ever."

5. Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 1000.

The death toll from a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Afghanistan has hit 1000, according to a local official in the province of Paktika, one of the hardest-hit areas.

"1000 dead, 1500 injured, and this number might go up, many families have been lost. Injured people have been taken to Kabul and Gardez," Mohammad Amin Hozaifa, information and culture director of Paktika told Reuters.

The quake struck on Wednesday about 45km from the city of Khost, near the Pakistani border, the US Geological Survey (USGC) said.

An unknown number of people remained stuck under rubble and in outlying areas, photos on Afghan media showed.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 killed more than 900 people in Afghanistan, disaster management officials said, with hundreds injured and the toll expected to grow as information trickles in from remote mountain villages https://t.co/hh63ZvwR6a pic.twitter.com/xUbo7XDB6y
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 22, 2022

Health and aid workers said rescue operations were complicated by difficult conditions including rains, landslides and many villages being nestled in inaccessible hillside areas.

"Many people are still buried under the soil. The rescue teams of the Islamic Emirate have arrived and with the help of local people are trying to take out the dead and injured," a health worker at one of Paktika's main hospitals said, asking for anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Mounting a rescue operation will prove a major test for the hard-line Islamist Taliban authorities, who took over the country last August after two decades of war and have been cut off from much international assistance because of sanctions.

That's everything you need to know this morning. We'll bring you more of the top stories throughout the day.

- With AAP.

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