Good afternoon – it’s been a busy day so far. As predicted, the Reserve Bank has delivered a third straight interest rate hike as it seeks to head off the inflationary threat from higher fuel prices linked to the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran.
The decision to lift the cash rate to 4.35% from 4.1% comes as the central bank revealed a gloomy new set of forecasts that showed intensifying cost-of-living pressures alongside weaker growth.
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the RBA’s decision to raise the cash rate would “make it tougher” for Australians already paying a “hefty price” for conflict in the Middle East.
But before that, the royal commission into antisemitism’s hearings continued with harrowing testimony from Jewish community members, Victoria released its state budget, and the Met Gala rolled around for another year. All of that and more, below.
Top news
‘He’s too young to retire’: Cam Smith and Australian golf ponder life without LIV’s riches
Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview wrongly claimed he was a sex offender
In pictures
Pore over our gallery of the best looks from this year’s Met Gala, AKA fashion’s Oscars. Event chairs Nicole Kidman, Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour had guests dress to the theme “fashion is art” at the event controversially funded by new honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
What they said …
***
“The reality is, they came to kill us. We just weren’t there. And it’s living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia.” – Dina.
A Jewish woman from Sydney told today’s hearing for the antisemitism royal commission about how everyday life has changed for her and her three children since the Bondi terror attack.
Full Story
‘Hope shifted to grief’: the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby
Jefferson Lewis has been charged with murder over the death of the five-year-old girl near Alice Springs. Indigenous affairs reporter Douglas Smith speaks to Nour Haydar about the charges facing Lewis and how the community is grieving.
Before bed read
Short on spare cash and spare time, reporter Caitlin Cassidy left her fringe trim too long. Describing her anguish to a colleague, she was presented with an obvious solution: why not cut her own?
“Why, indeed! I have hands. I have a mirror. What’s stopping me? All I need to do is overcome my fear,” she writes. Here’s how it went.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: LEU. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
Sign up
If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know with our Morning Mail newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland.
