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Good morning!
And happy National Lamington Day.
May there never be jam in those little Australian treasures.
I’ve got 10 seconds
The quote: “We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning.”
U.S. Vice-President JD Vance in a statement on Monday, announcing the birth of his and wife Usha’s fourth child. Alec is the first baby born to a sitting vice-president in more than 150 years.
The stat: 133. The number of people who were on board a ferry that sank off Guyana, on South America’s North Atlantic coast, on the weekend. 67 people have been rescued, but dozens remain missing.
The big question:
Yesterday’s results: 81% of you haven’t filled out your tax return yet, while 19% of you are on top of it. Thanks for voting - your responses inform TDA's journalism and research. [1,900 votes]
I’ve got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
An Australian woman linked to the terror group ISIS has been granted bail. Rayann El Houli returned to Melbourne from Syria in September, before her arrest in May on charges of travelling to a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS. Following the terrorist group’s defeat in 2019, the woman was taken to a Syrian detention camp with her kids, where they spent the next six years. Her lawyer told Melbourne Magistrates Court his client “renounces ISIS and violent jihad,” and “wants nothing to do with it”. El Houli’s bid for bail was approved during a hearing on Monday, with the judge accepting a combination of factors including the historical nature of her alleged offending and her role as primary caregiver to four children.
Asylum-seekers on Nauru are facing food and water shortages, a new report has found. There are currently 101 people seeking asylum in Nauru, 91 of whom live in community accommodation. The group were sent to the tiny island nation under Australia's offshore processing policy for asylum-seekers who arrive by boat. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre interviewed 78 community detainees, finding almost all are struggling to buy enough food, while 82% said they didn't have easy access to free, clean drinking water. Community detainees live on $260 a fortnight to cover basic needs outside accommodation, which they said wasn’t enough to live on.
Together with AAP.
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I’ve got 1 minute
Italy’s Parliament has unanimously passed a new law giving the families of mafia members help to leave.
Family members under 25 and their mothers can seek assistance with housing, education, and counselling, so they can separate themselves from the organised crime networks.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the policy will “offer an alternative of freedom for those born into mafia families who do not want to grow up to become a mafioso,” a member of the mafia.
The mafia
While the mafia is often associated with movies and TV shows, Italy is still home to prominent mafia organisations.
Three of the largest are ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, Sicily-based La Cosa Nostra, and Camorra in Campania.
These organised crime groups are involved in drug trafficking, gambling, fraud, and money laundering. Often, groups are connected by family and leadership is passed down through bloodlines, making it difficult for people to leave the mafia.
The law
Last week, Italian Parliament unanimously passed the “Liberi di Scegliere” (Free to Leave) law.
It provides the children (aged under 25) of mafia members and their guardians with protection and assistance to leave.
Under the law, the Government will support them to move away by providing housing, travel expenses, employment, legal aid, education, training and psychological help.
Personal details, including names, can also be changed.
Opposition MP Anthony Barbagallo said the policy was “investing in young people, freedom and education, to continue the fight against the mafia.”
In 2011, Judge Roberto di Bella began a pilot program to help women and children leave the mafia in Calabria, where ‘Ndrangheta is based.
He told The Guardian the law is “enormously important” with potential to “genuinely transform the lives of hundreds of women and children.”
Reporting by Emily Donohoe.
Quick hits
🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, features editor Emma explains why Andrew Tate has been arrested again. Listen or watch on Apple here, Spotify here, or YouTube here.
💶 Why has the financial watchdog issued almost $1 billion in fines? Sign up to TDA Finance here to make sure the explainer is in your inbox on Wednesday morning.
Good finds
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I’ve got 2 minutes
On Monday (local time), Andy Burnham took office as the UK’s new Prime Minister.
It comes four weeks after Burnham won a by-election to bring him into UK Parliament, leading then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign after two years.
In his speech, Burnham said: “We will make this moment a circuit-breaker for Britain, bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years.”
Here’s what you need to know about the UK’s seventh Prime Minister in 10 years.
Context
Since 2016, the UK has had seven prime ministers, mostly from the Conservative Party. In 2024, Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a landslide win at the most recent general election.
Political analysts in the UK said Starmer was not an effective communicator in office, and criticised his decisions to announce and then walk back policies. He also faced criticism for selecting Peter Mandelson as U.S. Ambassador in 2025, despite his known ties to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer’s resignation last month was widely expected.
Burnham
Burnham is 56 years old. He was born in Liverpool and studied at Cambridge University.
Burnham won a Manchester-based seat in the UK Parliament in 2001. While an MP, he unsuccessfully ran for Labour leadership twice.
In 2017, Burnham retired from his seat to become Mayor of Manchester.
Last year, he began hinting at a return to Parliament. In May, a Manchester-based Labour MP resigned, intentionally triggering a by-election for Burnham to run in, which he won.
Vote
Last week, UK Labour MPs elected Burnham as their new leader.
He needed 323 votes to win and secured 379. The only other nominee was British-Australian MP Catherine West, who received one vote. West said publicly she had voted for Burnham.
On Monday (local time), Starmer offered his resignation to King Charles III.
The King then officially asked Burnham to form a government. Afterwards, Burnham spoke outside No. 10 Downing Street.
“Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again... I will bring forward a new plan for Britain, a 10-year plan, laying out a path from where we are now to where I believe we all want Britain to be,” Burnham said.
He also said he would announce cost-of-living relief measures tomorrow, and seek to end rough sleeping.
Reporting by Emily Donohoe.
In partnership with Anthropic
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Presien, a physical AI company for heavy industry, used Claude to develop an agentic platform that analyses worksites around the clock - cutting critical safety events by over 70% in three months.
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Give me some good news
The electorate now known as O’Donoghue.
This story contains the name of a First Nations person who has died.
A federal electorate has been renamed in honour of trailblazing Aboriginal nurse turned Indigenous rights advocate Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue.
A member of the Stolen Generations, O'Donoghue was the first Aboriginal woman to be trained as a nurse despite racist prohibitions at the time. The division of Grey, which covers the majority of South Australia, is being renamed O'Donoghue, the Australian Electoral Commission announced on Monday. The AEC said it wanted to honour O’Donoghue, who died in 2024 aged 91, for her work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health advocacy and as “a prominent First Nations leader in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
Reporting by Emma Gillespie.
TDA titbit
Pogačar and Vingegaard in happier times
Tour de France frontrunner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race over the weekend, breaking his collarbone, and his rival Tadej Pogačar thinks he knows why.
Pogačar said Vingegaard was woken up at 2am the morning of the race by the anti-doping team.
Even those of us whose only task for the day is to show up at the office, let alone race the Tour de France, would agree it’s hard to do your best work if you’re woken up at 2am.
Somehow, this is all Lance Armstrong’s fault.
Reporting by Lucy Tassell.
TDA asks
