☕️ Who is Sussan Ley?

Here is today’s riddle: A man was born in 1962 and died in 1985 at the age of 70. How is that possible?

Answer is in the tidbit!

“I absolutely did think I was going to die.”
Kim Kardashian during her testimony overnight in a Paris court. 10 people are on trial over a violent 2016 burglary in which the celebrity and businesswoman was held at gunpoint.

72
The number of measles cases this year. It is the highest number of cases since 2019, according to data from the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System.

Defenestrate [dee-fen-eh-strate]
Definition: to throw a person or thing out of a window.
Used in a sentence: “If you don’t put your phone away, I will defenestrate it!”

The United Nations has held Russia responsible for downing commercial passenger flight MH17 in 2014, killing 298 people.

The ruling comes more than two years after Australia and the Netherlands launched a case over a missile strike on the Malaysia Airlines flight.

In a vote by the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Russia was found to have breached international law by providing the weapons used to shoot down the plane.

Both countries are now calling on ICAO to order Russia to enter reparation negotiations.

In July 2014, a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine on its way from the Netherlands to Malaysia.

It crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border and killed all 298 people on board, including 38 residents and citizens of Australia.

A joint investigation of the crash concluded the missile had been fired from an area near eastern Ukraine by Russian-backed rebels.

In 2022, three men were sentenced to life in prison by a Dutch court, which found there was “no doubt” that MH17 was hit by a missile launched from a field held by pro-Russian forces.

The Russian-backed figures were tried in absentia, meaning none attended the trial. They must be located and arrested before serving their sentences. A fourth man was acquitted.

International arrest warrants issued in 2019 remain active. Russia has denied all findings and previously said it would not extradite its citizens.

In a vote on Monday, the ICAO’s 193 member countries agreed that Russia “failed to uphold its obligations under international air law”.

Under that law, countries must “refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight.”

The decision followed multiple council sessions that reviewed written and oral submissions, ultimately finding the allegations of a criminal breach by Russia were “well founded in fact and in law.”

The Federal Government welcomed the ruling, calling it “a historic moment in the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for the victims”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has urged the council to ensure negotiations for “remedies for this violation” are mandated “swiftly”.

“We call upon Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct, as required under international law,” Wong said.

Russia has yet to publicly respond to the ruling.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

Sussan Ley has emerged as the new leader of the Liberal Party.

She won the ballot for the leadership against her main challenger, Angus Taylor.

Ley becomes the first female leader of the Liberal Party and first female Opposition Leader in Australian history.

So, who is Sussan Ley?

Ley was born in 1961 in Nigeria, where her father was working for British intelligence agency MI6. Her family moved to a farm near Toowoomba when she was 13.

She told The Australian in 2015 that she had added an extra ‘s’ to her first name in her late teens, based on a “numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality.”

After school, she got her pilot’s licence, and worked on sheep and cattle farms. Later on, she earned qualifications in economics, tax, and accounting.

Ley has been in Federal Parliament since 2001, representing the south-west NSW regional seat of Farrer.

Farrer is a large electorate bordering Victoria and South Australia, taking in towns including Albury, Griffith, and Deniliquin.

In 2001, she narrowly won the seat in a tight contest against the National Party.

In her first speech to the House of Representatives, she identified the “growing communication gap between the city and country” as a key issue, vowing to bridge it through stronger connections.

Ley climbed through the Liberal Party ranks after John Howard’s 2007 election defeat.

She served in various shadow portfolios including housing, women, and Assistant Treasurer during the Rudd-Gillard years.

When the Coalition won office in 2013, Ley was initially appointed as Assistant Education Minister in then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government.

In 2014, Ley became the second woman to join Abbott’s cabinet when she was promoted to Health Minister.

At the time, the only other female cabinet minister was Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop.

She remained within the senior ministerial ranks throughout most of Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison’s tenures.

Her last role in the Federal Government was Environment Minister between 2019 and 2022

In 2017, Ley stepped down as Health Minister in the Turnbull Government after she bought a nearly $800,000 property on the Gold Coast during a taxpayer-funded trip.

At the time, she said it was an impulse buy. A finance department review found she had used a government car to attend an auction.

Ley paid back more than $5,200 in invoices for the trip and “other travel that she felt might be considered more personal in nature”.

After the Coalition’s 2022 election defeat, Ley became Deputy Liberal Leader under Peter Dutton.

She also took on the shadow portfolios of women, skills, training, and small business.

Ley has spent the past few years advocating for an open economy with fewer regulations.

She’s also supported more female representation in the Liberal Party, telling TDA in January she wanted to see “more women preselected”.

The Coalition saw a landslide defeat at last Saturday’s election, with leader Peter Dutton losing his own Brisbane-based seat.

Ley nominated to become leader, saying “women and younger Australians feel neglected by the Liberal Party,” promising to bring renewal to her party’s diminished ranks.

She won the leadership ballot against her main challenger, Angus Taylor, who was the Shadow Treasurer in the last Parliament.

Ley won the Liberal leadership ballot 29 votes to 25. As part of the Coalition agreement, she will become leader of the Opposition, the first ever woman to do so.

While Julia Gillard was Australia’s first female Prime Minister and leader of a federal party, she was never the Opposition Leader.

Ley’s deputy is Queensland-based MP Ted O’Brien, who previously held the shadow climate and energy portfolio.

He was largely tasked with promoting the Coalition’s nuclear policy in the run up to polling day.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

Modibodi are changing the game (again) - launching period-proof swimwear just in time for those of us planning a warmer escape this Aussie winter.

With built-in protection for light to heavy flow and recycled materials crafted in partnership with SEAQUAL®, it’s made for comfort, confidence, and those moments when your period doesn’t take a break.

The ‘Teal Wand’ will be available for women aged 25 to 65 to collect a sample at home, rather than going to a doctor. Cervical screenings, also known as pap smears, test to see if you are at risk of developing cervical cancer, a disease related to HPV - the human papillomavirus, a very common disease for which you can be vaccinated. The wand is as accurate as a test in a doctor’s office, according to Teal Health. CEO and co-founder Kara Egan said the device is “giving women an option that makes sense for their lives – something that can be done quickly and comfortably at home.”

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

Lights, camera… and no nudity!

The 78th Cannes Film Festival began yesterday. This year, there was a tweak to the dress code at the world’s most prestigious film festival.

Nudity on the red carpet or any other area of the festival has been banned “for decency reasons”. Outfits with a large train that “hinder… the flow of traffic” are also not permitted.

Anyone not respecting these rules will be prohibited from accessing the red carpet.

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

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Riddle answer: He was born in hospital room 1962.

The high profile sex trafficking case of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has begun in court this week, with both the prosecution and defence laying out their arguments. The 55-year-old rapper and producer was arrested and charged in September last year. He was denied bail and has been in custody ever since.

In today’s podcast, we’ll explain the context of the case, and run through what we’ve learnt in the first few days of the trial.

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