☕️ Australian brand sues Kmart for copying designs

We hope you’re feeling supremely full of chocolate eggs (specifically Crunchie Easter eggs — the indisputable best flavour).

And now, let the chocolate egg sales begin!

The quote: “You look amazing. You look beautiful. And from up here, you also look like one thing.”
Victor Glover, the pilot on board NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft, during a press conference over the weekend. Artemis II is the first moon mission with humans on board a spacecraft in over 50 years. This mission will not land on the moon, but NASA does plan to send astronauts to land on the moon in 2028.

The stat: 18,589. The new record for the largest crowd in NBL history was set on Sunday during the series-decider game between the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena. The NBL is the top professional men’s basketball league in Australia. The Sydney Kings won with a final score of 113-101.

The big question:

Friday’s results: 10% of you said you would rarely openly share your political views with people who disagree with you. 21% of you said you welcome the conversation, while 56% of you said you would share with some people, but not all. [1,919 votes].

Together with AAP.

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Daylight saving ended yesterday, giving residents in large parts of the country an extra hour.

The clocks rolled back in NSW, Victoria, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania early on Sunday morning, changing the time of sunrise and sunset ahead of winter.

So, why is daylight saving time a thing?

Daylight saving literally ‘saves’ an hour of daylight for later in the day, letting people enjoy more sunshine in the evening during the warmest months of the year.

The sun rises and sets at different times throughout the year as a result of Earth rotating on its axis and moving around the sun. It means there are times when Australia gets more sunshine, and times we get less.

Large parts of Australia lose an hour every October, when clocks jump forward. After about six months, when the southern hemisphere rotates away from the sun, the clocks roll back and that extra hour is regained.

If that didn’t happen, many of us would end up starting our days in the dark during winter. For example, the sun would rise at about 8.30am in Adelaide in June.

Conversely, in summer, the sun would rise and set much earlier. That’s the case on the easternmost points of Qld’s coast, where the sun rises before 5am and sets before 7pm in November and December.

Daylight saving was first popularised as a way to conserve fuel in European countries during World War 1. With more light at the end of the day, people could commute home and cook dinner by daylight instead of needing to use gas or electric lights to see what they were doing.

Australia followed Europe’s lead, using daylight saving in war and dropping it in peacetime.

In the late 1960s Tasmania brought it back during a drought that left water supplies for hydro-electric energy dangerously low.

Other parts of the country followed Tasmania, but not Australia’s three largest jurisdictions (by land size) – Qld, the NT, and WA. Their populations are spread out across coastal cities and far-flung rural communities that are differently affected by daylight saving.

WA has held four failed referendums over the years on daylight saving. In the latest referendum, the ‘no’ vote was strongest in regional and rural areas – 86% of voters in the Central Wheatbelt voted against it.

Reporting by Lucy Tassell

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, Elliot and Billi discuss why peptides are taking over social media.

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Online clothing label Sabo Skirt has taken 21 companies to court, alleging they sold cheap knockoff versions of its designs.

The case has been filed in Australia's Federal Court against a group of local and international retailers including Kmart and fast fashion giant Shein.

The Queensland-based brand is accusing the businesses of damaging their reputation by selling garments similar to theirs, but “not crafted with high quality materials or craftsmanship.”

Here’s what you need to know.

Sabo Skirt (also trading as ‘Sabo’) is an Australian women’s fashion brand based in Queensland, known for its resort and event wear.

The brand alleges Shein, Kmart, and a further 19 retailers are selling cheap imitations of its original designs.

The claim covers 36 different items of clothing, designs, patterns and prints, with each brand accused of copying either whole or parts of that work.

The core allegation is not only that the designs were copied, but that they were reproduced in lower-quality materials and sold at significantly discounted prices.

Sabo argues this affected its sales and damaged its brand reputation.

Australian online retailer Billy J faces the most allegations of any defendant, accused of copying 11 garments.

It is not the first time some of these companies have been accused of “fashion duping”.

Shein in particular has faced a wave of similar legal actions globally.

The company has been accused of using data scraping and electronic monitoring to identify popular designs and reproduce them at scale.

In 2024, Shein settled with Sabo over allegations it had copied one of the brand’s knit dresses. Sabo alleges it has since breached the terms of that settlement by continuing to sell the item.

Shein issued a statement to the ABC acknowledging the claims and saying it takes cases like these seriously, adding that infringing others’ intellectual property is “not our business model.”

Kmart has said it will not make an official comment while the matter is before the court.

Court documents reveal Kmart has indicated it will not cease selling the disputed garments, meaning some products were still available for purchase online at the time of publishing.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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AWC said this is the species’ biggest increase in recent years, with the population now sitting at 5,330 bilbies across six sites.

The increase has been driven by growth in predator-free fenced areas, including at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary in Central Australia, where 66 “founder” bilbies were introduced to protect them from cats and foxes.

Dr Tim Henderson, AWC Wildlife Ecologist, said: “Bilbies are amazing diggers and have absolutely transformed the environment by foraging for food and constructing burrows. Their digging turns over large amounts of soil, helping retain rainfall and promote new vegetation growth.”

At the end of last week, just as the TDA office was preparing for the Easter break, one breaking news story caused the office to drop everything: the world’s oldest tortoise, Jonathan, had died.

Well… That was according to several media outlets including the BBC, at least. But when we looked deeper into it (our process is to always find a primary source for all news we report), we discovered: Jonathan is not dead. He is actually still alive and thriving at the estimated age of 193.

So why did everyone think he had died?

The (fake) news was initially posted by an account on X that claimed to be a man named Joe Hollins, who was a vet that previously cared for Jonathan. Only, that account was not real. As the real Joe Hollins told USA Today: “I believe on X the person purporting to be me is asking for crypto donations, so… It’s a con.”

The BBC has since issued a correction on its initial article, stating: “An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Jonathan had died, after the BBC along with other media outlets fell for a fake social media account.”

And to think this all unfolded last Friday, which was also International Fact Checking Day.

(And yes, the image above is the real Jonathan!)