Meanwhile in Australia

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53981034

Facebook has threatened to stop users from sharing news content in Australia as it prepares for a new law forcing it to pay publishers for their articles.

Regulators want tech giants like Facebook and Google to pay for the content reposted from news outlets.

Last month Google warned its users that its search services could be "dramatically worse" as a result.

Facebook's latest move to block news sharing has escalated tensions between tech firms and regulators.

The social media network said that if the proposed legislation becomes law it will stop Australians from sharing news on Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has drawn up the rules to "level the playing field" between the tech giants and publishers that it says are struggling due to lost advertising revenue.

[NewYorkExpress]

Scott Morrison has an issued an apology to a staffer who says she was raped by another staffer in the Defense Minister's office two years ago.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologized Tuesday to a former government staffer who alleged that she was raped by a colleague in Parliament House two years ago.

Morrison promised an investigation into the alleged rape and the culture inside the country's political capital, a day after the former staff member went to the media with her story.
Brittany Higgins alleges she was raped by a former colleague in the defense minister's office after an evening work event in March 2019.

In an interview with Australia's Network 10 show "The Project" on Monday, Higgins said she tried to go home, but the unnamed colleague insisted they go to Parliament House in a taxi to "pick something up," where she passed out on a couch.

She told "The Project" she woke up to find her colleague on top of her "mid-rape," and when she repeatedly asked him to stop, he didn't. Higgins has not publicly identified her alleged rapist.

Higgins said she spoke with the police in early April 2019, but decided against making a formal complaint amid concerns about her career prospects. "It's just not the right decision for me personally, especially in the light of my workplace demands," she wrote, according to Australia's news.com.au. Police in Canberra confirmed to Reuters they had spoken to a complainant in April 2019, but she chose not to make a formal complaint.

....


Defense Minister Linda Reynolds told Parliament on Monday that she didn't know the substance of the allegations when she called the meeting with her staff member, and "had I known, I would have conducted the meeting elsewhere."

Morrison on Tuesday apologized to Higgins and promised an investigation. The Prime Minister said that the alleged perpetrator was "quite swiftly" fired for breaching security by entering Parliament House on the night of the alleged rape.

"That should not have happened, and I do apologize," Morrison told reporters in Canberra. "I want to make sure any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible."

[NewYorkExpress]

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has paid compensation to a former aide who said she called her a "lying cow".

Australia's Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has paid compensation to a former aide who she called a "lying cow" after she alleged she had been raped by a former colleague.

The confidential settlement also includes a donation to a sexual assault charity.

She apologised to Brittany Higgins for making the slur at her in her office in February.

Ms Higgins had publicly accused another staff member of raping her in 2019.

In public the minister had stood behind her former employee when she made the accusation.

Ms Reynolds remains on sick leave and on Friday posted an apology on social media, adding she "did not mean it in the sense it may have been understood".

"Given that the comment was made public, which I never intended, I also want to retract it and unreservedly apologise to Brittany Higgins and acknowledge the hurt and distress it caused to her," she explained.

https://twitter.com/lindareynoldswa/status/1370200482086461442

[NewYorkExpress]

Sydney social media influencer (TikTok)Panoria Nukunuku, was harassed at a McDonald's by an elderly woman who thought he shouldn't be parking in a disabled space in the parking lot, despite his having a prosthetic leg. 

An Australian social media influencer man confronted an elderly woman in McDonalds after she questioned his disabled parking permit, and angrily showed her his prosthetic leg.

Paniora Nukunuku, a social worker based in Sydney, was challenged by the woman while he was sitting in his car.

He uploaded the footage of the encounter on TikTok, sharing it with his 158,000 followers.


'Obviously you can't see my disability if I'm in the car, so please tell me why this old lady thought it would be a great idea to approach me and knock on my window and demand to know whether this is mine or not?' he said.


He then showed off his artificial leg, which gave him the right to have a disabled parking spot

He captioned the video: 'You are not the disability police.'

Nukunuku, who highlights discrimination on his social media accounts, then followed the woman into McDonalds, and showed her his missing leg.


She said she 'desperately needs it', and 'that there were times' - but he cuts her off before she can finish.

'Is it because I don't look disabled? Is it because I don't look old that you want to approach me?' he says.