TRANSCRIPT
- Victorian Union leader John Setka resigns after 12 years in the top job
- Fifty-one people missing in Nepal after two buses were swept into a river by a landslide
- Australia's flag-bearers for the Paris Paralympic games are announced
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Union leader John Setka has resigned effectively immediately, citing malicious attacks and allegations.
He was due to retire later in 2024 after 12 years as the head of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime and Energy Union in Victoria.
But a union spokesperson says his sudden resignation comes after relentless stories written about him.
Mr Setka has been involved in a string of workplace controversies during his time in the top job.
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A landslide has swept two passenger buses carrying more than 50 people into a swollen river in central Nepal.
Authorities say 51 passengers are missing and more than 500 rescue personnel have been assigned to the search operation.
Nepal's rivers are generally fast-flowing due to the mountainous terrain.
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Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered at a Brisbane venue where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Steven Miles have attended a dinner.
Justice for Palestine Magan-djin organised the protest to coincide with the dinner at the Greek Club at West End as they demand the government end its support and complicity in what it calls the Gaza genocide.
There was heavy police presence at the Greek Club with tensions increasing as patrons tried to enter the building.
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The federal government says Australians can be confident intelligence agencies will protect the nation from foreign spies.
It comes after two Russian-born Australians were charged with espionage offences.
The couple have been remanded after neither applied for bail when they appeared in court and they face up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
Assistant Defence Minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, told the ABC dual citizens are given proper background checks before working in sensitive roles.
"Obviously there are rules around the background checks that people have to undertake to become a member of the Australian Defence Force and they're very, very thorough background checks. And you will have noted that recently the Government changed the recruitment criteria for the ADF but part of that, an important part of that is ensuring that people have checkable histories and checking people's backgrounds is pretty crucial to Defence Force recruitment."
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The Australian share market closed at its highest level, ever after a bigger-than-expected inflation drop in the United States.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished up 69.7 points, while the broader All Ordinaries climbed 72.7 points.
The ASX200 rose 1.75 per cent for the week, its second straight week of gains, and set its sixth closing high for 2024.
The result reaffirms predictions of a US rate cute in September, two months ahead of the presidential election.
Alexander Morris is the Chief Executive of FM Investments.
"We saw that investors are starting to move out of that trade and look for the S&P, everything else, the non-big tech trade and that's normal. We needed those firms, we needed that capital to find its way beyond seven or ten firms in the market. Long term, that wasn't going to be a healthy thing. We knew there would be a catalyst for it. We thought that would be rates coming down, and we saw when there is news that it was pretty clear rates will be coming down soon enough. The market reacted more or less as we would have expected."
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Traditional owners are hoping to share a Tiwi Island delicacy with the world.
The Mantiyupwi Clan are part of a world first trial in Black Lip Oyster Farming which they want to take to a global market in the next two years.
It's a delicacy which grows wild on rocks fringing the two main islands of Melville and Bathurst now being farmed in cages.
Evan Needham from the Darwin Aquaculture Centre says researchers have been collecting spawn from wild oysters and feeding them on a formula of algae until they’re big enough to release.
"I think that having a product that has a provenance that is grow in a remote destination by traditional owners in the Northern Territory is a fabulous story. I suppose the first step in the process was figuring out could we actually breed them? Yes oysters are bred around the world but this particular species hadn't been bred before so we had a world first with breeding this oyster and now we're just trying to perfect the techniques to produce commercial quantities of oysters."
The Tiwi islands is one of four Top End communities with trials underway with the work being supported by research grants and the Northern Territory government.
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And in sport, Wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario and swimmer Brenden Hall will be Australia's flag-bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paris Paralympic Games.
The duo were announced in their roles by Australian chef de mission Kate McLoughlin as they prepare to compete at their fifth Games.
It was an emotional moment for both athletes, having made their Paralympics debuts together at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Governor-General Samantha Mostyn has congratulated the pair.
"The Paralympic movement is clearly one of those groups that makes a profound difference in this country and in the world. Every day training or competing, Australia's Paralympians idea of what is with resilience and energy and optimism, you prove that sport really can change lives for the better."
