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TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin;
- Virgin Australia steps in after Rex enters voluntary administration;
- The UK prime minister visits the dance studio where three girls were stabbed to death;
- In tennis, Alexei Popyrin becomes the first Australian man in over a decade, to make the third round in the Olympics.
The Transport Workers Union says up to 850 workers will lose their jobs at Rex Airlines, after the carrier entered voluntary administration and grounded all its Boeing 737 flights.
Trips between major capital city airports have been cancelled, but regional services are still operating.
Rival airline Virgin Australia is offering Rex customers with an existing ticket the opportunity to transfer free-of-charge to one of their flights.
CEO Jayne Hrdlicka told the ABC, her company will also be trying to help Rex employees.
"All Virgin Australia jobs that are open will get prioritised for Rex disaffected employees. And we're bringing on board three, we're intending anyway to bring on board three 737-800s out of the Rex fleet. If we're able to do that, that means we can bring on more Rex disaffected employees into new jobs, and that's really important to us to make sure that people in our industry are as well supported as they can be."
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the stabbing attack in Southport that left three young girls dead on Monday has touched a nerve with the whole country.
He spoke after visiting the site of the attack - a dance studio where the girls aged 6, 7 and 9 were taking part in a Taylor Swift-themed dance party.
Five other children and two adults remain in critical condition, and a 17-year-old male is in custody.
The incident is the latest in a country where a recent rise in knife crime has stoked anxieties.
Mr Starmer says he shares those concerns.
"I am very worried about high levels of knife crime and I'm absolutely determined that my government will get to grips with it. But today is not the time for politics. Today is the time to focus entirely on the families who are going through such pain and grief and on the wider community and of course, a times to say thank you to those that responded yesterday in the most awful of circumstances."
Union head Michael Kaine says the government should step in, and take an equity stake in Rex in the short term.
He told the ABC, the airline industry needs change.
"You know, Rex has nearly been monstered out of the market by Qantas only four weeks after Bonza was. And we've got to deal with those competitive pressures, and we need an independent decision maker to infuse the community interest, the interests of regional Australia, the interests of Australian workers and not just be dictated to by the profit motivations of massive airlines and airports, who are making billions in profits."
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Some economists are predicting Australia will record a slight increase in the inflation rate when the figures are released today.
The Reserve Bank wants to see the annual inflation rate at between 2 and 3 per cent.
There are predictions of a 1 per cent quarterly increase which would take the annual rate to 3.8 per cent, up from 3.6 per cent in the 12 months to March.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has told the ABC that even though inflation has come down substantially, it does tend to fluctuate.
"We also know from around the world, that even as inflation has moderated really substantially here in Australia, it rarely moderates in a perfectly straight line, it zigs and zags on the way down, that's been the experience...."
James Glenday: "Sorry to interrupt, treasurer but if it zigs or zags in the wrong direction, would you expect another interest rate rise?"
Jim Chalmers: "Well a couple of things about that. I mean first of all, as you'd expect, I don't pre-empt decisions taken independently by the Reserve Bank and its board and I don't give them free advice. They will weight up a whole range of factors in our economy, not just today's inflation numbers."
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In tennis,
Australia's Alexei Popyrin has beat Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka to set up a third round meeting with defending Olympic champion Alexander Zverev.
The Sydneysider triumphed 6-4, 7-5 in what he says were some of the hottest conditions he's ever played in - as temperatures hit the high thirties at Roland Garros.
Popyrin is the only Australian left in the singles draw.
He's also the first Australian man since Lleyton Hewitt back in London in 2012, to reach the third round of an Olympic tennis tournament.
