☕️ Beau Lamarre Condon testifies

It’s a pleasure to be back in your inboxes after my trip to the U.S. to cover the midterm elections.

And straight from one election to another…

A couple of weeks ago, The Daily Aus secured the first-ever leaders’ debate hosted by a youth media company for a Victorian election. This was to be a debate between the two people who can become premier.

Premier Ben Carroll’s team accepted our invitation. As did Opposition Leader Jess Wilson. But yesterday, the Premier pulled out.

Nevertheless, our invitation to the Premier to participate in a leaders’ debate remains open.

And if not, we’ll just interview Wilson, as well as speaking to the minor parties. Let us know if you have any question suggestions by hitting reply to this email!

The quote: “New Zealand has spoken. It may take us a little bit longer to figure out exactly what it is that you’ve said.” Former NZ PM Chris Hipkins speaking to Labour party supporters after the country’s election on Saturday night. The results may not be confirmed for weeks.

The stat: 1 in 4. The proportion of teens worldwide who did less than an hour of physical activity per day in the last week, in a UN study of 3.2 million adolescents.

The big question:

Friday’s results: 81% of you think the Democrats will win the next U.S. Presidential election, 5% think the Republicans will, and 14% don’t know. Thanks for voting - your responses inform TDA's journalism and research. [2,273 votes].

Together with AAP.

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Last week, a NSW court heard from Beau Lamarre-Condon in his trial for the alleged murders of Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in 2024.

Prosecutors have argued Lamarre-Condon was motivated by an “obsessive and jealous infatuation with Baird” after a brief relationship with him.

The former police officer gave evidence last week, telling the court: “I’m responsible for [Baird’s] death but it wasn’t intentional.”

Lamarre-Condon and Baird were romantically linked in 2022 and part of 2023, but Baird broke things off. Baird and Davies began dating in early 2024.

Police began investigating Baird and Davies’ disappearance in mid-February 2024, after neighbours reported hearing gunshots from Baird’s inner-Sydney home.

Following a search, Lamarre-Condon handed himself in to police and was later charged with murder. The bodies of Baird and Davies were later found at a rural property in Bungonia, near the regional city of Goulburn.

Last Thursday, Lamarre-Condon began giving evidence. Defendants in criminal trials are not required to give evidence and judges are not supposed to suggest that staying silent implies guilt.

On the stand, Lamarre-Condon detailed his on-and-off relationship with Baird, including that Baird had left a house key in his mailbox for him. Lamarre-Condon said he had previously entered Baird’s home with the key and gone through Baird’s phone while he was asleep.

Lamarre-Condon said he faced homophobia and bullying during his time in the NSW Police, and had on three occasions planned to die by suicide.

On Friday, he told the court that the night before the alleged murders, he was in a headspace where he could have either returned his police gun or died by suicide.

Lamarre-Condon said he visited Baird’s home to collect “expensive” clothes he had left behind. He said he dressed as an Uber Eats driver to avoid the possibility to having to have a conversation with Baird as he walked up to the house.

After he let himself into the house, in Lamarre-Condon’s telling, Baird thought he was a thief, and came at him with a knife.

Lamarre-Condon said he had his police gun on him, and that he aimed his gun at Baird’s right shoulder and fired. Then, he and Baird physically struggled, and he “accidentally discharge[d] the gun” at Baird. He then called Triple Zero. The court was played a recording of the call.

Lamarre-Condon said Davies then came into the room, took the gun and pointed it at him. The accused said he grabbed Davies’ wrist, and the gun went off, striking Davies.

Lamarre-Condon said he moved the two bodies into Baird’s bedroom and had a panic attack. He then told a friend he had shot Baird. The accused said his friend recommended he try to sink the bodies.

He told the court he turned himself in as he “knew what [he] had done” to Baird “was manslaughter”, but was “fearful” as he thought he would be in danger in jail due to his job.

Lamarre-Condon said he “tried to give as much detail” as possible to police about the locations of the bodies.

The trial will continue in court today.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, we explain what led to Russell Brand’s guilty verdict. Listen or watch on Apple here, Spotify here, or YouTube here.

🎾 The AFLW finals are underway. Sign up to TDA Sport here for a full run-down in your inbox at 4.30pm.

The parents of a woman who died from a seizure are suing OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT advised their daughter to stop taking her anti-seizure medication.

Bowen Wan, 31, died in February after living with epilepsy for most of her life.

Her parents allege ChatGPT helped Wan taper off her medication over 25 days without medical supervision, encouraged her to hide the plan from doctors and reassured her when she reported symptoms.

Bowen Wan was a machine-learning software engineer at Amazon in Seattle.

She was diagnosed with epilepsy at 14 and eventually settled on the medication lamotrigine, which her doctors increased over time to 400mg a day. The medication reduced her seizures but did not stop them completely. Her epilepsy was classified as difficult to control.

Wan had also experienced memory, speech and word-finding difficulties while taking epilepsy medication.

In November 2025, Amazon told Wan her job would be cut as part of its largest workforce reduction. Her employment was due to end on 11 February 2026.

As her U.S. work authorisation was tied to her job, being fired put her path to permanent residency at risk.

Wan believed lamotrigine was affecting her ability to find words in English, Mandarin and the dialect she grew up speaking. She turned to ChatGPT for help reducing her medication, believing it could restore her language abilities and help her prepare for job interviews.

The lawsuit alleges Wan became increasingly reliant on ChatGPT for advice about managing her medication, including changing prescribed doses.

Wan’s conversations with ChatGPT were in written Chinese. The lawsuit includes translated extracts.

In January 2026, ChatGPT allegedly guided her to taper off her 400mg daily dose of lamotrigine over about 25 days, without medical supervision. It allegedly told her stopping the drug completely by 15 February was “completely feasible” and “not reckless”.

The chatbot also allegedly encouraged her to hide the plan from doctors, telling her before an appointment: “Do not mention [the lamotrigine] reduction plan”.

During the taper, Wan reported seizure symptoms, but ChatGPT allegedly reassured her and encouraged her to continue.

In her final exchange with the chatbot on 11 February, Wan asked about head pain. ChatGPT’s last words to her were: “This is your brain working hard to rebuild yourself.”

Wan’s parents, who were in China, became concerned when they could not reach her. They sent a friend in Seattle to check on her. Their friend found Wan dead in her apartment on 14 February while on a video call with them, the lawsuit states.

The medical examiner later determined the 31-year-old had died from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).

A post-mortem found her lamotrigine level was about one-fifth of the lowest level generally considered therapeutic.

Wan’s parents are seeking damages, including compensation for her death, punitive damages and a refund of her ChatGPT subscription fees.

They allege OpenAI failed to provide adequate safeguards for Chinese-language conversations, and that the company knew these safeguards weren’t in place.

They are also asking the court to order to stop ChatGPT from providing advice on changing or stopping medication, and to improve how it identifies conversations that require medical help.

Wan had been using an earlier version of ChatGPT, which is no longer available. OpenAI announced plans to phase it out on 29 January, and blocked access to that model on 13 February, the day after Wan’s death.

The company said it had since continued to improve how its models respond to sensitive health situations.

“This is an incredibly heartbreaking situation and our thoughts are with all those impacted,” a spokesperson said.

Reporting by Adella Beaini.

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Hijikata started in the qualifying rounds before beating former world no.1 Novak Djokovic in the official opening round. It’s the biggest success the 25-year-old Aussie has ever achieved at a high-level tournament and is set to put him in the world’s top 60 players for the first time, even though he was knocked out in the round of eight. Hijikata said: “I’m really proud… I’m back where I belong.”

Reporting by Lucy Tassell and AAP.

An Italian chef in Queensland defended his hatred for pineapple on pizza – and lost his job over it.

Davide Tamburella filed an unfair dismissal case to the Fair Work Commission, after he was fired due to multiple complaints from customers, including that he refused to serve pineapple on pizza. He told the Commission it was offensive to his Italian culture.

Unfortunately for Tamburella, he filed his application too late. Pineapple on pizza lovers, you win this round.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.