☕️ Weinstein to face a retrial

Good morning!

If you know any Star Wars fans, don’t forget to tell them ‘May the 4th be with you’ tomorrow.

Have a good weekend!

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Quote of the day

“I will never forget any of it.”
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned for several months in Russia in 2022 after bringing medicinal cannabis into the country, in an interview with The New York Times.

Stat of the day

$US6.5 billion ($AU9.9b)
How much pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has offered to pay to settle thousands of lawsuits brought by Americans who allege its talcum powder contains asbestos, giving them ovarian cancer.

Today in history

1979
Margaret Thatcher was elected as the prime minister of the UK. She became the first female prime minister in Europe.

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Some headlines from this morning:

• Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is urging parents to consider who they are sharing content with online, after a survey of 4,000 parents by the Australian Institute of Criminology found nearly 3% had received requests online for child sexual exploitation material. Around a third of these parents were offered payment for exploitative content. Dreyfus said parents need to be “more aware of the potential harms to their child” if their photos are posted online. 

• Solomon Islands has elected its foreign minister Jeremiah Manele as the new Prime Minister. It comes after the election last month resulted in no clear leader and former Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare announced he would not be returning to office. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese congratulated Manele on X, saying the countries’ “futures are connected”.

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Harvey Weinstein will face a retrial after a 2020 conviction was thrown out

TW: Rape

Disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein will face a retrial in New York, after his 2020 rape conviction was overturned last week.

A New York appeals court found “egregious errors” occurred in the original trial, which saw Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The “errors” related to evidence permitted in court from women who alleged Weinstein had assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.

Further details

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office shared plans to commence a retrial during a court hearing attended by Weinstein. The retrial is expected to begin later this year.

It will test the same historical rape and sexual assault allegations for which Weinstein was convicted of in 2020.

Weinstein remains in custody, despite winning his appeal. He was handed a 16-year prison sentence for separate charges in California last year.

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A court will decide if the Govt has a legal obligation to protect Torres Strait Islanders from climate harm

Two Traditional Owners from the Torres Strait Islands are making their final arguments in a climate lawsuit against the Federal Government this week.

First Nations men Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai argue the Government has a legal obligation to protect Torres Strait Islanders from climate harm.

They’ve argued the Government has failed in this duty.

Here’s the latest.

The case

Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai are native title holders of the Boigu and Saibai Islands — two low-lying islands along the Torres Strait off the northern tip of Queensland.

The men launched legal action against the government in 2021 in the Federal Court.

They claim adverse impacts of greenhouse gas emissions are threatening local communities, noting a recent spike in flooding events.

Greenhouse gases

The men have argued the Government has not taken adequate action to tackle climate change. They said this has directly failed Torres Strait Islanders and puts the region at risk of becoming “uninhabitable”.

Greenhouse gases released by industrial activities like burning fossil fuels become trapped in the atmosphere, causing hotter temperatures on Earth.

The two men are arguing the Government must further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Government response

The Government has acknowledged Torres Strait Islander peoples face “some impacts of climate change”, such as rising sea levels.

However, it has defended its climate policies and argued that a duty of care can’t be practically enforced.

It also pointed to a ruling that was overturned in the Federal Court in 2022 about the government’s duty of care to young Australians when considering fossil fuel projects.

Elsewhere

Lawyers for the men pointed to a recent international case, which saw a senior women’s group successfully challenge the Swiss Government in the European Human Rights Court.

The women argued Switzerland’s inaction to address climate change negatively impacted their health and lifestyles.

The court determined Switzerland violated the European Convention on Human Rights, and ordered the government to pay more than $AU131,000 in compensation to the women’s group.

Next steps

Three years after the men launched legal action against the Federal Government, closing arguments are expected to wrap up in the coming days.

A final decision is expected later this year.

If they win, the men’s lawyers said it would set a legal precedent meaning “activities that threaten the pathway to an emissions reduction goal - like new coal, oil, or gas projects - could be challenged in a court.”

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Give me some good news

There was a bit of a rush at this year’s Australasian Performing Right Association Awards, also known as the APRA Awards.

Troye Sivan’s lead single Rush took out the number one spot for the peer-voted song of the year.

The 28-year-old was also nominated for a Grammy this year for Rush.

TDA tidbit

With the slip of a finger, legendary diva Barbra Streisand accidentally left a… confusing… comment on Melissa McCarthy’s Instagram.

“Give him my regards did you take Ozempic?” Streisand commented under an image of McCarthy and a friend.

For several hours it was left there, and everyone was very confused.

But then Streisand clarified she meant to send it as a private DM. In a statement on X, Streisand said in part: “I just wanted to pay her a compliment. I forgot the world is reading!”

McCarthy soon also said in a statement: “The takeaway is Barbra Streisand knows I exist. She reached out to me and she thought I looked goooood.”

Want more from The Daily Aus? Listen to our podcast!

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have intensified across U.S. college campuses and have now spread to universities here in Australia.

Protesters are calling for an immediate ceasefire, and for their universities to ‘divest’ from (stop investing funds in) companies linked to Israel.

According to CNN, more than 1,000 students have been arrested across at least 21 states since mid-April, so on today’s we’re going to explain exactly what you need to know.

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