What we learned: Monday 5 August
And that’s where we’ll leave you this Monday. Here’s a recap of today’s headlines:
The West Australian Liberal senator Linda Reynolds gave evidence in her defamation trial against her former staffer Brittany Higgins.
The Australian government has raised the country’s terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, reversing a change made nearly two years ago. The director of Asio, Mike Burgess, said Australia’s security environment was “more volatile and more unpredictable”.
The federal government’s crackdown on international students will cause “damage” and harm Australia’s reputation, a leading higher education analyst has said.
Environmental groups have welcomed the Western Australian environment protection authority’s rejection of fossil fuel giant Woodside’s proposed Browse Gas project.
The Israeli embassy in Canberra has taken issue with aspects of how the Australian government characterised a report on the killing of the Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues in Gaza.
The opposition has criticised the Albanese government for only attempting to address anti-competitive behaviour from major airlines after Rex and Bonza’s operations competing with Qantas and Virgin collapsed.
And a cooling tower in Melbourne’s west is the likely source of the state’s legionnaires’ disease outbreak after 78 cases and two deaths were recorded from the disease in Melbourne.
Thanks so much for your company today. We’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning for another day’s news.
Updated
Day two of Linda Reynolds’ trial against Brittany Higgins has wrapped up and we’ll be bringing you day three from tomorrow at 10.30am Perth time/12.30pm AEST.
In the final minutes of the hearing on Monday, Reynolds’ lawyer, Martin Bennett, raised another social media post by Higgins that had been published while Reynolds was on the witness stand.
The Instagram story shared a post by Julian Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robertson, promoting her latest book, How many more women? How the law silences women. Higgins’ post included the words “Pertinent reading”.
Bennett said it was “extraordinary aggravating conduct” by Higgins, that she needed to “give up” on the commentary and that Reynolds’ case would amend the statement to include the latest post.
Outside court, Bennett said it was “strange” that as soon as Reynolds began her evidence, Higgins posted on social media.
Higgins’ lawyer, Rachael Young, said she would try to let Higgins know but added the post wasn’t related to the hearing.
Updated
