☕️ Diddy sentenced to 4 years

I hope you had a beautiful weekend, and depending on where you are in Australia, enjoying a long weekend today.

I heard 'All I Want For Christmas' by Mariah Carey for the first time yesterday so I guess it really is the start of that time of year.

"We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East."
U.S. President Donald Trump in a post to Truth Social over the weekend, following reports that Hamas had agreed to some parts of his ceasefire plan. Negotiations remain ongoing on the details of the 20-point plan, which would include a complete cessation of hostilities and the return of all hostages.

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The number of men who have served as the Archbishop of Canterbury. On Friday, Sarah Mullally became the first woman to be appointed to the role. Mullally will become the leader of some 85 million Anglicans globally. The previous Archbishop resigned in November last year child abuse cover-up findings.

2010
Social media app Instagram was launched, reaching one million users within three months. It has since sold to Meta, the owner of Facebook, and last month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Instagram now has three billion active monthly users.

Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sentenced to 50 months (just over four years) in prison following his conviction on two prostitution-related charges.

Combs submitted a plea for leniency in a letter to the judge.

The 55-year-old rapper and producer has spent more than a year in a New York jail after he was arrested and charged in September 2024.

The time he has already served will be taken off his sentence.

Combs founded music label Bad Boy Records in 1993 before rising to prominence as a rapper and producer.

Bad Boy has represented some of the world’s most famous rappers, including the Notorious B.I.G.

Combs has also acted in multiple films, including ‘Get him to the Greek’ and ‘Monster’s Ball’.

Combs has been charged with sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.

Federal prosecutors allege he used his “business empire” to cover up decades of abuse against women, exploiting staff to coordinate, conceal, and even record incidents, all to “fulfil his sexual desires” and “protect his reputation”.

However, in July, a jury acquitted him of the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, which carried potential life sentences.

Judge Arun Subramanian sentenced Combs to 50 months (just over 4 years) in prison.

He was also fined $US500,000.

In handing down the sentence, the Judge said: “To Ms Ventura and the other brave survivors that came forward, I want to say first: We heard you.”

He added that Combs “will have a chance to show [his] children and the world what real accountability, change and healing”.

Help is available: 1800 RESPECT

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A UK coroner has found that a 23-year-old woman died after being “adversely influenced” by her parents to refuse life-saving chemotherapy.

Paloma Shemirani rejected treatment that doctors say would have given her an 80% chance of complete recovery on the advice of her parents.

Her mother, Kate Shemirani, is a UK online personality and podcaster who rose to prominence for her strong anti-vaccine stance.

In the UK, a coronial inquest is held when a person dies in circumstances that are “unnatural” or “violent,” or if the cause of death is unknown.

It is not the same as a court hearing, and a coroner cannot find someone guilty of a crime.

At the end of an inquest, the coroner may make recommendations to the Government or relevant agencies on ways to improve public health and safety.

In December 2023, Paloma was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma — a bulky mass in her chest that was compressing major blood vessels.

Doctors at Maidstone Hospital told her chemotherapy gave her an 80% of survival. Her twin brother, Gabriel, told the inquest that at the time he had “no concerns that she would reject it.”

However, after consulting with her mother, Paloma discharged herself on Christmas Eve 2023, saying she wanted time to consider her options.

Paloma never returned for treatment, instead pursuing alternative therapies at her mother’s home.

The attempted treatments included Gerson therapy, which involves eating a vegetarian diet, drinking 13 glasses of juice every day, and enemas.

Paloma also underwent osteopathy, a treatment for bones and muscles.

The inquest heard Kate was “actively counselling” her daughter against the treatment doctors were proposing.

Gabriel said their mother had long held “radical conspiracy theories and views about medical treatment”.

At the time of her diagnosis, Paloma’s father also said she should not agree to any treatment in the hospital.

“You must discharge urself now. You will politely say that you want to go home and think this thru for a few days,” he texted her.

In April 2024, Gabriel began proceedings in the High Court, seeking an order to compel his sister to receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy for her lymphoma.

He believed Paloma was “prevented from exercising her capacity to decide freely” due to what he described as “the controlling and coercive influence” of their mother.

Gabriel wanted a judge to meet with Paloma as part of the proceedings, but she died before this could happen.

On 19 July, Paloma collapsed shortly after being served dinner at her mother’s house.

Kate said she put her daughter in the recovery position and then phoned a friend for help. The coroner noted there was an “avoidable delay” of several minutes before an ambulance was called, though CPR was started beforehand.

Despite resuscitation efforts by paramedics, Paloma’s brain was irreversibly damaged during a 37-minute period of low oxygen flow. She was confirmed brain dead on 24 July, with life support withdrawn the following day.

Coroner Catherine Wood found Paloma died from the progression of a disease which was curable but not treated.

An osteopath who saw Paloma on the morning she collapsed said he had “never seen” a lymphoid mass like hers in 43 years of practice.

The coroner rejected accusations made by Paloma’s parents that her death was the fault of medical professionals, calling their “persistent pursuit of utterly groundless assertions as to the cause of death” during the inquest “reprehensible.”

Ultimately, the coroner ruled that the influence of Paloma’s parents “did contribute more than minimally to her death.”

However, the inquest did not find sufficient evidence to support a conclusion of unlawful killing. This finding would typically trigger a criminal prosecution.

Paloma’s brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian, told the BBC the coroner had “failed” by not classing their sister’s death as an unlawful killing.

Neither of her parents attended the conclusion of the coronial inquest.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

Leading nutrition scientist, dietitian, and Chobani Yogurt health spokesperson Dr Joanna McMillan explains that not all yogurts are created equal.

Jo says when choosing Greek yogurt, look for one made the authentic way — strained to naturally boost protein, with simple ingredients you recognise.

That means you’re getting all the goodness without adding unnecessary thickeners, emulsifiers or sugar.

Starting this month, retailers must charge customers a deposit fee for purchases of participating beverages. Consumers can then return the drink packaging to any collection point to receive a small refund. The scheme includes disposable plastic bottles of up to 3 litres, reusable glass bottles of up to 1.5 litres, and metal cans up to to 1 litre. Customers can get roughly 20 cents back for plastics and cans, while the refund for glass will be around 40 cents a bottle. No receipt will be required to access the deposit refund. Deputy Climate and Environment Minister Anita Sowinska said the policy will move Poland closer to its environmental goals. “We want to eliminate tonnes of plastic floating in our rivers, lakes and seas,” she said. 

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Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Meet Tilly Norwood: an AI “actress” and the talk of Hollywood. 

Several actors weighed in on an Instagram post about her from industry publication Deadline, including Ariel Winter (Modern Family), Mara Wilson (Matilda) and ‘The White Lotus’ actor Lukas Gage, who joked “she was a nightmare to work with!!!!”

AI studio owner Eline Van Der Velden defended her creation, saying “she is not a replacement for a human being [but] a piece of art.” 

Hollywood actors union SAG-AFTRA released a statement, saying: “‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation. It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion [and] audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.” 

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

Katherine Bennell-Pegg made history in 2023 when she was selected to join a training program with the European Space Agency, graduating as the first Australian woman to become a qualified astronaut. From studying engineering to working on space missions, and training for the possibility of going to space herself someday, she's part of a new generation of Aussies pushing the boundaries of space exploration. Katherine sat down with TDA to tell us all about what training to become an astronaut actually involves, what excites her, and what she hopes Australia's role in space will look like in the years to come.