☕️ Victorian teachers to strike over pay

Oh, you want an explanation on the explosive diarrhoea outbreak sweeping the U.S. to start your morning?

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The quote: "My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant." NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani in a social media post about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's impending visit. The International Criminal Court has a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest for alleged war crimes, but the U.S. does not recognise the court's authority.

The stat: $1.18 million. The fine issued by Hornsby Local Court to a tobacco retailer for selling tobacco products without a licence, possessing illicit products, and offering vaping goods and non-tobacco smoking products.

The big question:

Yesterday’s results: 46% of you said you “do a mix of big and small shops over the month” for grocery shopping, 36% of you do “one big shop,” and 18% of you do “many small shops” throughout the week. Thanks for voting - your responses inform TDA's journalism and research. [2,419 votes].

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Public school teachers in Victoria will walk off the job for the second time in months today after rejecting the State Government’s latest pay offer.

Victorian members of the Australian Education Union (AEU) narrowly rejected an offer of a 28.3% pay rise over the next four years during a vote on Tuesday. It follows months of negotiations, as educators push for a 35% pay rise over four years.

Hundreds of schools are expected to be impacted by today’s work stoppage.

Here’s what you need to know.

Victorian teachers are the lowest paid in the country, according to analysis by Victoria University.

The AEU Victorian branch has been locked in negotiations with the State Government since mid-2025. In March, 35,000 Victorian teachers, principals and education support staff walked off the job for the first time in 13 years.

In May, the AEU said it had reached an in-principle agreement with the Government. However, union members voted to reject the deal – which would have delivered pay rises of between 28.3% and 32.4% over four years – in June.

On Tuesday, the Victorian AEU said 90% of its eligible Victorian members voted on a revised deal.

The updated agreement, which included fewer meetings for teachers and a lump sum payment for some staff, was rejected by 51% to 49%.

As a result, the union said its planned industrial action would proceed, with members stopping work for 24 hours on Thursday.

Members will gather at Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne’s CBD at 10.30am (AEST) before marching to State Parliament.

“If Victoria was actually the education state, public school staff would have access to the funding and resources they need to deliver the education their students deserve,” AEU Victorian branch President Justin Mullaly said.

Victorian Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll said he was disappointed that AEU members had voted to reject the Government’s new offer.

“This deal would have made Victorian teachers and education support staff the best paid in the country together with the best conditions,” he said in a statement to media.

Carroll also pointed to the narrow result and urged the union to cancel the planned industrial action.

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

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A judge in the Federal Court has found Australian actor and director Rebel Wilson not liable for defamation.

The case was brought by actor Charlotte MacInnes, who appears in Wilson’s directorial debut ‘The Deb’.

MacInnes alleged Wilson defamed her in social media posts claiming the young actor made a sexual harassment complaint during filming, and then later retracted it to further her career.

While delivering her judgment, Justice Elizabeth Raper said she had found it to be “substantially true” that MacInnes had “changed her story”.

Rebel Wilson: Aussie actress known for the Pitch Perfect trilogy. The Deb is her directorial debut. In this case, she is the defendant, accused of defaming...

Charlotte MacInnes: a 28-year-old West Australian singer and actor who plays a leading role in The Deb. MacInnes brought the case, arguing her professional reputation was seriously damaged when Wilson publicly identified her as a victim of sexual harassment, without her knowledge or consent. Then there’s...

Amanda Ghost: a British music producer and executive, one of the producers on The Deb. Ghost is not a party to this particular case, but she is central to it: Wilson’s allegations about Ghost’s conduct toward MacInnes are what sparked the dispute. Ghost denies wrongdoing.

On 5 September 2023, Ghost became unwell after a swim at Bondi Beach. MacInnes helped her back to a nearby apartment, where the two warmed up by bathing together in their swimmers.

Both Wilson and MacInnes agree the incident happened. What they disagreed on is what was said about it afterwards.

Wilson claims MacInnes came to her to tell her the bath incident made her uncomfortable. MacInnes denies this.

In July 2024, Wilson posted a video to her millions of Instagram followers accusing the film’s producers of “inappropriate behaviour towards the lead actress.”

MacInnes immediately and publicly rejected the claims, saying no such complaint had ever been made. Wilson went on to make several more public posts on the topic.

MacInnes ultimately sued Wilson for defamation in the Federal Court.

Her argument was that Wilson publicly identified her as a victim of sexual harassment, harming her professional reputation before she could benefit from her first lead film role.

The lawsuit covered four Instagram posts in total, including one from September 2024 in which Wilson claimed MacInnes had “changed her story” after Ghost cast her in a stage production of The Great Gatsby and helped her get a record deal.

Under Australian law, defamation is when published material damages someone’s reputation. It’s a civil matter, which means no jail time, only financial penalties.

Wilson’s defence was that what she had posted was accurate.

During the trial, Wilson testified that the bath incident and subsequent complaint was “an absolute nightmare situation” for a “first-time director making a movie that is essentially a girl-power movie.”

The court found MacInnes had failed to prove that Wilson’s actions had caused serious harm to her reputation.

Justice Raper also found, based on the evidence, that it was “substantially true” that MacInnes changed her story about feeling uncomfortable during the bath incident.

However, the judge also noted that she had “serious misgivings as to the truthfulness of the testimony of each of Ms MacInnes, Ms Ghost and Ms Wilson.”

Wilson posted to Instagram shortly after the judgment, saying: “Thank you to the judge and the Australian legal system who I have the utmost respect for.”

MacInnes has told Reuters that she will be appealing the decision.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

Aussies are transforming safety for construction workers using AI.

Presien, a physical AI company for heavy industry, used Claude to develop an agentic platform that analyses worksites around the clock - cutting critical safety events by over 70% in three months.

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The Aussie defeated five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah at a meet in Slovakia in 11.04 seconds. The time stripped four hundredths of a second off the 21-year-old’s previous national record, which she set at last year's world championships in Tokyo. Lewis also won the 200m on Wednesday, rounding out a perfect final Comm Games warm-up. The Aussie will contest the 100m, 200m and 4x100m in Glasgow, with athletics heats starting next week.

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Tokyo has given government workers the green light to wear shorts this summer, to reduce energy used for air conditioning during extreme heat.

While it’s good for the planet, Japanese media is now using the term ‘sune-hara’, or ‘leg hair harassment’, with some women saying men’s bare legs at work make them feel uncomfortable. One worker told The New York Times he shaved his ankles to avoid looking sloppy.

Trichophobes (people with a fear of hair), look away.

Reporting by Pavitra Ravi.