Good afternoon.
The Reserve Bank board has lifted its cash rate target from 3.85% to 4.1% in a split decision that leaves the door open to further hikes.
Five members of the monetary policy board voted to raise interest rates while four voted to hold, marking the RBA’s narrowest call since it began disclosing votes in July.
Household budgets are also under pressure from soaring petrol prices due to Iran’s blockade of the strait of Hormuz oil transport corridor. Chris Bowen had earlier called out people who were buying up jerry cans from Bunnings, declaring the practice “unhelpful and un-Australian”.
Top news
Naveed Akram’s family members could be killed if their identities aren’t suppressed, court told
Child abuse material ‘systemic’ on Elon Musk’s X amid Grok scandal, online safety regulator warned
Let the games begin: Victorian Liberals fail at sport but surprise with teamwork in viral video
Former Australian tennis No 1 Marinko Matosevic handed four-year ban for doping offences
Utah woman who wrote book on grief after husband’s death found guilty of murdering him
In pictures
A photo of Iran’s bombed schoolgirl graveyard went around the world. But was it real? Ask Google’s Gemini AI service or X’s Grok chatbot and both will assure you the photo is not from Iran at all. And both will be wrong. The “factchecks” are just one example of a tidal wave of AI-generated slop engulfing coverage of the Iran war.
What they said …
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“These conditions are not incidental, they are the predictable outcome of policies that continue to expand policing and imprisonment” – Lorraine Pryor, member of the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.
The advocacy group has expressed devastation after a 35-year-old Aboriginal woman died in custody on Monday in Perth’s Bandyup women’s prison and said overcrowding, punitive policies and a lack of support are contributing to the growing incarceration of First Nations women.
Full Story
How police are using ‘less lethal’ weapons at protests
Stinger grenades, OC spray and bean bag rounds are just some of the “less lethal” weapons increasingly being used against protesters.
Nour Haydar speaks with Ariel Bogle and Nino Bucci about how police are using these controversial new tools and how some have also been linked to multiple deaths.
Before bed read
Mel Bradman couldn’t stop worrying – until she learned about the 6.30pm rule. “My therapist told me that anxiety is a bully and, like all bullies, it needs to be put in its place,” she writes. “To my relief, she knew exactly how to do it.”
(Readers, do try this one at home.)
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: INN. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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