RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
THIS supermodel is turning heads on the catwalk and earning thousands - so what makes Stav different?
Good morning, and welcome to our morning news coverage. We will be bringing you the best of what’s happening this morning, so you can get across the news quickly.
10am
That’s it for our live #RUSHHOUR news blog. You can get across the stories you need to know today below or go to news.com.au for the latest headlines.
9.55am
If you’ve downloaded the film Dallas Buyers Club illegally, could you be hit with a $9000 fine?
That’s the average amount rights holders have tried to extract from illegal downloaders internationally, and after yesterday’s Federal Court ruling, there are around 4,700 Australians who could be feeling pretty nervous.
ISPs have 28 days to appeal Federal Court Justice Nye Perram’s decision, but in the event it does go ahead, the experts have told news.com.au exactly what to do if you do receive a bill.
9.50am
TV series Arrested Development looks like it will be back.
One of the show’s executive producers, Brian Grazer, confirmed during a podcast, Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report, that the show would be going back into production.
“I love Arrested Development. But it never — it was never a huge thing. But people are loyal to it, and we’re going to do another 17 episodes. So stay tuned for Arrested Development,” he said.
9.40am
Dozens of public servants were told their jobs were to be axed in what could be the most heartless April Fools’ Day joke ever.
Australian government department bosses told employees that their workplace was being broken up and moved to Melbourne on April 1, according to the Canberra Times.
Despite growing distress among the 30 low-ranking public servants at the Passport Office’s Canberra Regional Eligibility Centre, a message was displayed on television screens for more than five hours informing employees to submit expressions of interest if they wanted to keep their jobs by moving interstate.
A departmental spokeswoman said on Tuesday that DFAT had no comment to make.
9.25am
So summer is officially over. Heavy rain, wind and even snow have swept across Australia.
The NSW Blue Mountains received an unseasonably early dump of snow late yesterday.
9.15am
Queensland MP Billy Gordon will not resign from parliament and is determined to keep his seat as an independent MP.
Gordon has been weighing up his options after quitting the Labor Party when reports of unpaid alimony, an undeclared criminal history and alleged domestic violence were made public.
In a statement, Mr Gordon said he plans to vote in support of the minority Palaszczuk Government, despite calls for him to resign.
FULL STATEMENT | Billy Gordon's press release: http://t.co/KyGTE5MkBl #qldpol pic.twitter.com/4xI5AeEEVI
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) April 7, 2015
9.10am
Tennis star Andy Murray has shunned his famous rivals — and turned down a seven-figure sum — ahead of his wedding in Scotland this weekend.
Murray will wed his long-time partner Kim Sears at Dunblane Cathedral on Saturday, but the affair won’t exactly be filled to the brim with tennis royalty.
Neither world No. 1 Novak Djokovic or Murray’s closest friend of the big four, Rafael Nadal, were included on the guest list.
9.05am
Conservative US Senator Rand Paul has joined the US presidential race, the second Republican to launch a 2016 White House bid.
His announcement on Tuesday comes two weeks after Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas launched his candidacy.
8.55am
Australia’s approach to tackling the scourge of the drug ice will be overhauled with a new government taskforce.
“As a citizen and as a parent I am appalled at what is happening on our streets and in our homes,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said this morning.
“The propensity for violence, the propensity to subsequent very serious mental illness, the propensity to disfigurement which ice produces means that this is a drug epidemic way beyond anything that we have seen before.”
Ice usage has almost doubled over the past year, the Australian Crime Commission believes.
#WATCH: Tony Abbott on the 'ice scourge' affecting Australia. http://t.co/ZIBSqwg0G1
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 7, 20158.45am
There are reports that Tom Cruise has not seen his daughter Suri for nearly a year.
Sources have told TMZ that the famed action star, 52, hasn’t managed to prioritise time with his eight-year-old daughter into his busy shooting schedule.
Cruise’s rep has denied the claims and says the two have been spending time together away from the limelight.
8.30am
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has been skewered in the middle of a tense election campaign — for eating a hot dog with a knife and fork.
The Conservative leader’s visit on Monday to a voter barbecue backfired as an attempt to appear as an everyman, relaxing in a blue shirt as the beer flowed.
But newspapers and social media seized on the photograph of Cameron using cutlery to eat a hot dog as evidence that the prime minister is posh and unrelatable — an image his party has battled to shake.
8.15am
A stunning male model has been making headlines in the UK for his work as a female supermodel.
Stav Strashko is often mistaken for a woman and is making more than $150,000 posing as a woman for big brands - including Ray-Ban, L’Oreal and Diesel.
The 21-year-old has been modelling for about five years and is now taking the catwalk by storm.
8am
John Travolta has broken his silence on the controversial Scientology documentary Going Clear.
The devoted Scientologist said he refuses to watch the Alex Gibney film, adding that his ongoing involvement with the church has been “beautiful”.
“I’ve been so happy with my experience in the last 40 years that I really don’t have anything to say that would shed light on (a documentary) so decidedly negative,” Travolta told Tampa Bay Times.
7.45am
The life of a teenage girl was put at risk when the tyres of an ambulance were slashed outside a party in Sydney on Friday night.
Paramedics believed the girl was suffering adverse effects of consuming drugs or alcohol and needed hospital treatment.
But when they returned to their ambulance, the paramedics found three tyres of their vehicle had been slashed and they had to call for a second ambulance to take to the girl to hospital.
7.35am
Thieves have raided some 300 deposit boxes in London’s diamond quarter, accessing the vault through a lift shaft and using heavy cutting equipment.
The daring heist apparently took place over the long Easter weekend and police said in a statement that they were only called to the address in Hatton Garden in central London on Tuesday morning.
Big #robbery at one of the safe deposits in #HattonGarden over the Easter weekend. Not good news for a lot of dealers. #diamonds
— Lewis Malka (@lewismalka) April 7, 2015“It appears that heavy cutting equipment has been used to get into a vault at the address and a number of safety deposit boxes have been broken into,” London’s Metropolitan Police said.
No estimate was given of how much the thieves have made away with.
7.20am
Scientists believe they have invented a new battery that could fully charge a smartphone in just one minute.
Publishing the findings in the journal Nature, Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, hailed it as a breakthrough in battery technology that went further than previous attempts using aluminium.
Researchers hope the aluminium battery could replace the lithium models commonly found in laptops and mobile phones. The batteries are also less prone to catching fire and more environmentally friendly.
7.10am
Barbie mania is set to hit Myer this weekend when 500 retro dolls representing the original black-and-white swimsuit Barbie go on sale for the original 1959 price of $3.
Mattel is re-releasing its first swimsuit doll in Australia, 56 years after she famously made her debut at the New York Toy Fair.
7am
A spike in the Aussie dollar just before the Reserve Bank announced it was leaving interest rates unchanged yesterday is being investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The financial market watchdog is also looking into similar movements in the dollar prior to the February and March announcements.
6.45am
The original manuscript and notes to the song American Pie has sold at auction for $1.2 million.
Two people vied for Don McLean’s 16-page manuscript at Christie’s on Tuesday. Bidding started at $500,000 and rose to $1.2 million in just four minutes.
6.30am
A bride-to-be who is due to walk down the aisle on Saturday has gone missing in the NSW Riverina district.
High school teacher Stephanie Scott, 26, was last seen at her workplace, Leeton High School, at 11am on Easter Sunday, police say.
Her fiance Aaron Woolley, also from Leeton, has appealed to the community to help find her.
“We’re really worried. (Someone) said they saw her at Woolworths around 1pm on Sunday, but no one has seen or heard anything since,” Mr Woolley told Fairfax Regional Media.
6.15am
A judge has ordered allegations that a woman was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 be struck from the record of a civil case in the US.
The Duke of York was named in court papers claiming the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein made the girl have sex with the prince three times.
But Judge Kenneth Marra said the “lurid” claims were “unnecessary” to decide the civil case, according to the BBC.
6am
One-punch killer Kieran Loveridge has allegedly been carrying on an improper affair with a prison guard in jail.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Jody Marson, 31, is an ironwoman competitor who has been accused of having a relationship with the 21-year-old inmate.
Loveridge is serving a minimum 10-year jail sentence after fatally punching Thomas Kelly in Kings Cross in 2012. He was recently sent to the notorious maximum security facility Supermax for disciplinary reasons.
A Corrective Services NSW internal investigation is focusing the alleged “improper relationship”, but there is no allegation Ms Marson was involved in any criminal activity.
‘Lie’: Leaders’ debate on holiday with Karl
Last night’s debate was a chance to rev up this tedious election campaign. Unfortunately, we’ve seen higher stakes on Lego Masters, writes James Weir.
Aussie towns immigrants refuse to live in
As Australia’s capitals burst at the seams, these towns are begging for more immigrants to fill well-paying jobs. But there’s a “Catch-22” — and it might surprise you.
Dutton banking on huge defence boost as Albo pushes tradies plan
Peter Dutton is hoping a $21 billion commitment to boost defence in uncertain times will help regain voters while Labor is spruiking a new plan to help thousands of tradies get qualified. FOLLOW IT LIVE