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A BBC radio presenter has been fired for posting a 'racist' tweet about Meghan Markle and the royal baby, & more in News in 5.

– With AAP.

1. A BBC radio presenter has been fired for posting a ‘racist’ tweet about Meghan Markle and the royal baby.

British broadcaster Danny Baker has been sacked by the BBC after posting a picture of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee and the words “Royal Baby leaves hospital”.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – publicly showed off their newborn son for the first time on Wednesday.

The baby, whom they have named Archie Harrison Windsor-Mountbatten, is seventh in line to the throne.

You can watch Prince Harry’s press conference on the day of his son’s birth here. Post continues after video.

Video by sussexroyal

Baker denied that the tweet, which he deleted, was racist, and said it was a misinterpreted joke about “Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes”.

He was promptly fired by the BBC on Thursday.

Baker has a show on BBC radio and has made numerous TV appearance over the years on TV in Britain, where he is a household name. A Jeff Pope sitcom for ITV, Cradle to the Grave, was based upon Baker’s life.

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A BBC spokesman confirmed he was leaving the broadcaster.

“This was a serious error of judgement and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody,” the spokesman said. “Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”

The broadcaster continued to defend himself on Twitter on Thursday, before being fired.

“Would have used same stupid pic for any other royal birth or Boris Johnson kid or even one of my own,” he tweeted.

“It’s a funny image. (Though not of course in that context.) Enormous mistake, for sure. Grotesque. Anyway, here’s to ya Archie, Sorry mate.”

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He also complained about reporters showing up at his house to asking him about the controversy.

“Here we go,” he said. “Opened door, grinning Mail hack. ‘Do you think black people look like monkeys?’ Any other time you’d knock someone right on their arse for saying that.

“No mate. Gag pic. Posh baby chimp. Alerted to circs. Appalled. Deleted. Apologised. He asks again!”

Baker said on Twitter his sacking was “a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity”.

“Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah. Literally threw me under the bus,” he wrote.

2. Millions of $50 notes across Australia carry a small typo.

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Millions of $50 notes are circulating through Australia with a tiny error in the fine print.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed the word “responsibility” was misspelled on hundreds of millions of notes before they entered circulation, including a batch of about 46 million new notes printed last year.

The word “responsibility” is misspelt as “responsibilty” three times in an excerpt from Edith Cowan’s maiden speech to the West Australian parliament in 1921.

“We have printed around 400 million $50 banknotes with this error on it,” an RBA spokeswoman said on Thursday.

“However, it is likely that many of these banknotes will be stored for contingency purposes.”

The notes are still valid, legal tender, and will continue to be issued and stay in circulation until reaching their standard end of life.

They feature Indigenous writer and inventor David Unaipon on one side, and Ms Cowan, Australia’s first female member of a parliament, on the other.

The error will be corrected at the next print run.

3. The SA teacher who had sex with a 17-year-old student has successfully appealed her sentence.

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An Adelaide teacher who admitted to having sex with a student has walked from court after she successfully appealed her sentence.

Sonia Ruth Mackay was last year jailed for more than four years after she pleaded guilty to the persistent sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old boy.

She had already served five months, but the Court of Criminal Appeal on Thursday overturned the sentence and handed her a good behaviour bond.

Jailing her last December, Judge Liesl Chapman said Mackay had struck up a sexual relationship with a student in her year 12 English class.

Over the course of a month, the pair engaged in sexual activity “many times” at Mackay’s house, in her car, at the victim’s house and in public areas around Adelaide.

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They drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes and cannabis together, and Mackay bought the boy presents and a nose piercing.

The boy said in a victim impact statement that Mackay also branded his flesh with a cigarette, and that the relationship caused him to withdraw from family and friends.

His mother said her son stopped coming home for days at a time and, when he did come home, Mackay called him and threatened self-harm.

The boy’s parents became suspicious and approached the school principal, who reported the matter to police.

When confronted by his mother, he admitted the sexual relationship and said he was in love with Mackay.

4.”The worst crimes detected in SA.” Snowtown killer Robert Wagner denied a non-parole period.

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Snowtown murderer Robert Joe Wagner has been denied a non-parole period, after a judge ruled he is a “hardened killer” who has shown no remorse and is incapable of rehabilitation.

Wagner had represented himself before the South Australian Supreme Court to argue that having a possible release date would assist with his mental wellbeing.

Justice Greg Parker on Thursday dismissed the application in a hearing lasting about 10 seconds.

In his ruling, Justice Parker said the bodies-in-the-barrels murders were “the worst crimes ever to be detected in South Australia”.

“The 10 murders, when considered in combination, amount to the worst possible type of offending,” he said.

“The applicant expressly declined to assert that he was remorseful.”

Justice Parker said his lack of contrition was consistent with a previous ruling that he was incapable of rehabilitation.

Since 1999, the 47-year-old has been serving 10 life sentences over the infamous “bodies-in-the-barrels” killing spree.

The ringleader in the murders, John Justin Bunting, is similarly serving life without parole.

SA commissioner for victims’ rights Bronwyn Killmier welcomed the ruling.

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“The murders were planned and premeditated, involving torture for pleasure, with no mitigating circumstances and no contrition,” she said.

“The killing of 10 defenceless people, followed by systematic theft of their money while fooling their families is callous and cowardly.”

Wagner’s application had also been opposed by prosecutors, who said his crimes were of “unparalleled seriousness”.

The serial killings were exposed when police found eight dismembered bodies in acid-filled barrels in the vault of a disused bank at Snowtown, north of Adelaide.

Two more bodies were found buried in a backyard at suburban Salisbury North while detectives later linked two further deaths to Bunting and Wagner.

After a trial lasting 170 days, Bunting was found guilty of 11 murders with Wagner jailed over 10 of the deaths.

Two other men, Mark Ray Haydon and James Spyridon Vlassakis, are also behind bars over the killings; Vlassakis after pleading guilty to four murders and Haydon for helping Wagner and Bunting dispose of the bodies.

5. R.Kelly couldn’t respond to a sexual abuse lawsuit because he can’t read, his lawyer says.

Image: Getty.
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R. Kelly's lawyer told a Chicago judge that the singer didn't respond to a lawsuit brought by one of his sexual abuse accusers because he is illiterate.

One of Kelly's attorneys explained in court that the singer was in jail when he was served with the lawsuit and that Kelly didn't respond because he can't read.

Kelly's bookings for performances began drying up following the airing of a television documentary Surviving R. Kelly.

That was weeks before his February arrest on charges accusing him of sexually abusing a woman and three girls over a period of about 10 years starting in the late 1990s.

But on Tuesday, one his attorneys told reporters that the Grammy award-winning R&B singer was lining up performances, and that he anticipated the judge approving requests to travel to make those appearances.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to the sexual abuse charges and denied any wrongdoing.

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