I thought I’d try something different today. Two truths and a lie – news edition.

Here are three headlines from the past week. Except I made one up. Which one? That’s for you to figure out. Answer is in the tidbit!

The quote
"I struggle to understand the direction the ABC is going in that it could consider the role of political editor not needed." – ABC’s Political Editor Andrew Probyn after it was announced he had been made redundant from the public broadcaster amid a round of staffing cuts.

The stat
3.6%
The unemployment rate in May, down from 3.7% in April, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Today in history
1963: 26-year-old Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Tereshkova orbited the Earth nearly 50 times over three days in the Russian spacecraft Vostok 6.

Some headlines from this morning:

The CEOs of listed companies in Australia received an average pay increase of 15% over the past year, according to new data from the Governance Institute of Australia. A listed company means it is on the Australian stock market.

The median base salary for a CEO of a listed company in Australia is now $1.1 million (this is not including bonuses).

General staff working for the same ASX companies received an average pay increase of 3% over the same period of time.

This is roughly in line with the average Australian pay increase over the past year, which was 3.7%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Inflation (rising prices) over the past year jumped to 7% in the 12 months to March this year.

Not-for-profits:
The survey also reported on the earnings of CEOs in the not-for-profit sector.

The median salary for CEOs of not-for-profits is now $270,500.

The median salary for CEOs in charity organisations is $228,000.

The report:
The Governance Institute of Australia surveyed 1,167 boards to compile this data across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

It surveyed 226 listed companies.

The data comes from the current financial year.

If you want your friends to wake up with us too, forward this email to them.

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here (it’s free!)

Senator David Van has been removed from the parliamentary Liberal Party.

It follows allegations made by Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe on Wednesday, who claimed she had been sexually assaulted by Van. Van has denied these allegations.

Liberal leader Peter Dutton said on Thursday that he had since been made aware of "further allegations" about Van.

Thorpe makes the allegation:
In the Senate this week, Thorpe interrupted Van's speech about the political response to Brittany Higgins' sexual assault allegations.

Thorpe called Van a "perpetrator" and accused him of sexually assaulting her. Van "utterly" denied the allegation.

Comments made in the Senate are covered by 'parliamentary privilege', which means they cannot be the subject of a defamation lawsuit. However, the Senate rules prevent Senators from making personal reflections on one another. To comply with these rules, Thorpe withdrew the comments late Wednesday but said she would make a further statement on Thursday.

Van repeats denial:
In an interview on 2GB radio yesterday morning, Van repeated his denial, saying he was "shattered" and "in shock" and the allegations were "completely unfounded".

He said: "I think the only time I've ever even touched her would have been shaking her hand after her [first] speech... I have not harassed her in any way, shape, or form."

Van said Thorpe did accuse him of "following her into the chamber" from their neighbouring offices in 2021, which led to him moving offices. But he denied he ever harassed her.

Thorpe speaks again:
In the Senate on Thursday, noting the Senate's rules, Thorpe repeated her allegations of sexual assault but did not mention any senator's name.

Thorpe said "one man... cornered me in a stairwell... [I was] followed, aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched."

Thorpe said she became "afraid to walk out of the office... To me, it was sexual assault."

Thorpe said she raised the matter with the Senate President, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and senior Liberal leaders at the time, which led to the person's office being changed.

She alleged it was not an "isolated incident" from one individual. "There are others I could name who have inappropriately touched me."

Thorpe said she did not intend to report the matter to the police or pursue legal action against any individual.

Dutton removes Van:
Just before 2pm on Thursday, Dutton said he had been made aware of "further allegations" about Van overnight and this morning.

He did not provide details of these allegations but said they had been referred to the independent parliamentary workplace support service.

Dutton said he had decided Van should no longer sit in the Liberal party room.

"I'm not making any judgement on the veracity of the allegations or any individual's guilt or innocence," Dutton added.

Shortly after Dutton spoke, Van spoke in the Senate and said he accepted Dutton's decision.

He repeated "nothing [Thorpe] has alleged about me is truthful... There is no interaction that would conceivably resemble what she described today."

He called Thorpe's concerns in 2021 over his office location "irrational... There should be and must be an investigation into these outrageous claims, so they can be proved to be false”.

He suggested Thorpe's second statement had also broken Senate rules by reflecting personally on him.

Stoker’s claims:
On Thursday night, former Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker published a statement alleging that Van, her former colleague, “squeezed my bottom twice”. She added: “By its nature and its repetition, it was not accidental.”

In the statement, Stoker claimed she had raised the matter with the Senator the following day and he “apologised and said he would never do it again”.

Van said last night he had “no recollection of the events” but that “you have to respect colleagues if they feel like something had happened.”

1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732

Get all the news you need to know today in your ears on The Daily Aus podcast!

The Men’s Ashes cricket series between Australia and England will begin tonight.

The five-match series will start in Birmingham, and be played across five different venues across England. Australia won the last men’s and women’s Ashes series.

So it's a bit chilly - we get it. Winter is well and truly coming, and with it comes colder temperatures, longer nights, and shorter days. But that ain't an excuse to stay indoors.

Throw the doona to one side, switch off the streaming, and find a blanket of snow and a stream of a freshwater river to reset your body and mind. You're going to need the right gear for the mission, though - and that's where Kathmandu comes in.

We recommend their newest puffer jacket - the Heli R. It's lighter (220g!) and more packable than the original, but offers the same cosy warmth. Winter winter, chicken dinner. Check it out here.

The moment you’ve all been waiting for! Let’s go through each headline.

This is true. In Ecuador this week, a 76-year-old woman who was declared dead at a hospital knocked on her own coffin during her wake. The woman’s son told the Associated Press: "My mum was wrapped in sheets and hitting the coffin, and when we approached we could see that she was breathing heavily." The government is now investigating the doctors involved in her case.

This is not true. But I feel like there’s a world in which it could be? 🤔

This is also true. At a zoo in Costa Rica, a crocodile produced a foetus that was found to be 99.9% genetically identical to herself. It is the first known ‘virgin birth’ in a crocodile. Apparently, virgin births are common in some animals, including sharks, birds, snakes and lizards. The BBC has more on the story here.