Morning everyone. Despite budget deficits and job cuts across the university sector, six out of the eight vice-chancellors of Victoria’s top universities are earning more than $1m as the federal government vows a crackdown on excessive pay packages. That’s our top story, plus how Indigenous women were 33 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence, Harvey Weinstein’s victims face a harrowing return to court, and the MP gunning for Olympic glory.
Australia
The classroom divide | A six-year-old boy with autism and Down syndrome was allegedly strapped into an infant’s high chair at a New South Wales primary school, bringing accusations of “child abuse” from his family.
Top of their class | The 2023 annual reports of Victorian universities have revealed that six vice-chancellors had their salaries boosted last year, including separate rises of more than $50,000. At the same time, five universities have posted annual deficits blamed on financial recovery from the pandemic.
Bonza bust | The administrators determining Bonza’s future have held round-the-clock talks to try to save the airline as Australia’s airports maintain the budget carrier helped push down fares.
‘I want to do it so bad’ | A “quiet and respectful” 15-year-old being held in Sydney on terrorism charges was allegedly part of a group chat in which he professed to wanting to “stab” and “attack” non-Muslims, a court has heard.
Gold Rush | Troye Sivan won song of the year at the Australian Performing Rights Association awards last night with his track Rush, a lascivious ode to queer nightlife inspired by the gay clubs of Melbourne.
World
College crackdown | Crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests at colleges across the US have intensified, leading to hundreds of arrests from Wisconsin to Arizona and claims about “outside agitators” driving escalation. A “pro-Israel mob” has been blamed for violent clashes on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles. The issue is placing Joe Biden in a bind because he cannot afford to alienate young voters, nor appear weak in the face of chaos. Follow developments at our live blog. It comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has told Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to allow more aid into Gaza.
Weinstein retrial | Harvey Weinstein will be retried in New York, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has said, a week after the state’s highest court threw out his 2020 rape conviction.
‘True scholar’ | Daniel Anjorin, the 14-year-old boy killed in the sword attacks in north-east London on Tuesday, has been praised as a “true scholar” by his school while a 36-year-old man has now been charged with his murder.
‘Very sad’ | Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has described his rupture with JK Rowling over trans rights as “really sad” after she said “celebs were eroding women’s hard-won rights”.
Pure imagination | Artists in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse are recreating Willy’s Chocolate Experience, a tribute to the bleak, disastrous Willy Wonka-themed Glasgow immersive event in February that was so awful it made global headlines.
Full Story
Is stubborn inflation taking away any hope for an interest rate cut?
Rising education, health and rental costs have kept inflation higher than expected this year. Economics correspondent Peter Hannam assesses what the Reserve Bank might do and whether there is any hope of a rate cut this year.
In-depth
As governments try to address the domestic violence crisis, our data crunchers show that Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by the issue. Women aged 15 and over were 33 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than non-Indigenous women in 2021-22, figures show. As part of the wider problem of dealing with violent crime against women, crown prosecutors are being urged to ask for female judges to hear cases involving Indigenous women who are victims.
Not the news
In her fortnightly review of fitness and wellbeing activities, comedian Jennifer Wong finds that mastering tai chi is a matter of mind over navel. She must not have negative thought, her instructor says, but how can Jennifer not feel negative when she looks at the “ease, poise and grace” of the woman next to her. Wong, by contrast, “feels like my brain is solving a Rubik’s Cube while my body is solving a Rubik’s Mini Cube”.
The world of sport
A-League Men | Central Coast Mariners have finished top for the first time in 12 years after goals from Jacob Farrell and Max Balard clinched a 2-0 win over Adelaide in Gosford last night, denying a historic plate for Wellington Phoenix.
Olympics | The first-term Labor MP for Hunter, Dan Repacholi, has flown to Azerbaijan gunning to qualify for the men’s 10-metre air pistol in Paris and become only the second ever parliamentarian to qualify for a Games.
Champions League | Dortmund are at home to Paris St Germain in the first leg of their semi-final this morning.
Media roundup
An ice-strengthened ship bought from under the nose of the Japanese government will be based in Hobart to harass the country’s whaling fleet, the Australian claims. The Age reckons that the collapse of the case against the state’s Covid hotel quarantine scheme is a “shambolic end to a deplorable episode”. More than 1 million NSW club patrons could be affected after a data breach led to information being shared overseas, the Telegraph reports.
What’s happening today
Business | Woolworths releases third-quarter sales results and Rio Tinto holds its AGM in Brisbane.
Infrastructure | Transport minister Catherine King speaks at the Transforming Transport summit in Melbourne.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
