☕️ Hostages and prisoners are freed

It’s been a momentous start to the week, with the first phase of the Israel-Hamas peace deal now firmly underway.

“The war is over,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters yesterday.

More on the details of the hostage-prisoner swap below.

“This grim situation must be a wake-up call that unless we act decisively now, we will also lose the Amazon rainforest, the ice sheets and vital ocean currents.”
Scientific advisor Dr Mike Barrett, announcing a report showing the world is reaching a ‘climate tipping point’, which could include the “widespread mortality of warm-water coral reefs”.

1 in 7
The proportion of Australians who were living under the poverty line in 2022/23, according to a new report by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the University of NSW. The report defines the poverty line as $584 a week for a single adult and $1,226 a week for a couple with two children.

The Hungarian word for quotation marks is "macskaköröm", which literally translates to "cat claws".

On Monday, Hamas released 20 living hostages, while Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as part of the first phase of the U.S.-led peace agreement.

The first phase also involves Israeli troops withdrawing to an “agreed upon line”.

Here’s what to know.

When Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, it took 240 hostages, including both soldiers and civilians, such as the attendees of a music festival near Israel’s border with Gaza. Hamas took others from their homes.

Before Monday, the UN said 48 hostages were still captive, 20 of whom were believed to be alive. Many hostages, both living and dead, were released or rescued by Israeli forces over the last two years. Hostage releases came during previous pauses in hostilities.

On Monday, Hamas released seven living hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza, followed by another 13. The Red Cross then handed them over to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

The IDF took them to reunite with their families and receive medical treatment.

Hamas also released the remains of some hostages to the IDF via the Red Cross. A process of identification will now begin. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed earlier on Monday that if the remains of any hostages cannot be located in Gaza, “an international body” will be formed to find them.

After Hamas released the living hostages, Israel released almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Of the group, 250 are Palestinians on life sentences, including people convicted of murder, and planning and executing terror attacks.

According to the peace plan, Israel also released 1,700 people detained after 7 October 2023, “including all women and children detained in that context”.

Both the UN Human Rights Office and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have found Israeli authorities have detained thousands of Palestinians indefinitely without charges or a trial.

The UN report, published in July 2024, specifically looked the IDF’s “arbitrary” detention of Palestinians after 7 October 2023.

The UN found the IDF took Palestinians “into custody” while they were sheltering in place, or passing through checkpoints while being displaced within Gaza.

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The personal data of more than 5.7 million Qantas customers has reportedly been leaked on the dark web.

The Australian airline is one of at least 39 global companies who were affected.

All use software giant Salesforce to store customer data.

Here’s the latest.

In July, Qantas said it had detected “unusual activity” at a third-party call centre and responded immediately to contain the breach.

The airline later confirmed its customer database had been compromised. It contained names, email addresses, birth dates and Frequent Flyer numbers of at least 5.7 million Qantas customers, who were notified.

Sensitive data like passport information and financial details were not included in the hack.

The hackers are part of a cybercrime collective called Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters (SLSH).

They obtained the Qantas data by posing as an employee and convincing a worker at the call centre to give them access to the customer database.

Salesforce is a software platform used to manage customers.

At least 39 other major companies that use Salesforce were implicated in the attack, including Toyota, Disney, McDonald’s, Ikea, and Adidas.

Last week, SLSH posted a sample of the data to their website, demanding Salesforce pay a ransom on behalf of the companies whose customer data had been compromised, by 10 October.

When the deadline arrived, SLSH said it had leaked data for six companies, including Qantas.

The alleged hackers posted a message with the data, saying: “Don’t be the next headline, should have paid the ransom.”

A Salesforce spokesperson told TDA the company “will not engage, negotiate with, or pay any extortion demand.”

Qantas said it is working with cyber security experts to investigate “what data was part of the release.” So far, it said the majority of customer records were limited to name, email address and Frequent Flyer details.

Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke told the ABC that Qantas could be subject to legal repercussions over the breach. He warned Australians to be wary of a “cold call from somebody who sounds like they’re from Qantas”.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

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The Aussie women’s cricket team beat India by three wickets in Visakhapatnam, setting a new record for the highest successful run chase in women’s one-day cricket. Captain Alyssa Healy recorded her first century as skipper to help Australia over the line. The win continues a strong start to Australia’s campaign for an eighth World Cup title. The side has had victories over New Zealand and Pakistan, while the match against Sri Lanka was abandoned due to wet weather. Australia has three more group stage matches remaining. Healy’s side will take on Bangladesh on Thursday before matches against England and South Africa next week.

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Reporting by George Finlayson.

Recording the fastest time at a competitive marathon is a huge achievement. At the Melbourne Marathon over the weekend, Caitlin Adams was the fastest woman on the track — in her first-ever marathon.

Approximately 50,000 runners competed, an 8,000 person increase compared to 2024.

Adams ran the marathon in two and a half hours. After the race, she told reporters: “There's nothing that quite beats coming over that finish line and winning that race. It's such an iconic race here in Melbourne.”

Men’s winner Jack Rayner, who also won the marathon last year, ran the race in two hours and 15 minutes, only 10 minutes off the Australian marathon record.

Maybe this is my sign to skip Saturday park run and jump straight to the marathon next year.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

Names, phone number and email addresses were just some of the personal data points compromised during a hacking scandal that first hit Qantas back in July.

Fast forward to this week, and things have escalated, with the hackers behind that attack leaking that data on the dark web.

On today’s podcast, we’re breaking down exactly what happened, how the hackers got in, who was behind the attack, and what Qantas customers can do to protect themselves.