We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Miracle: baby survives 14 hours in car crash wreckage.
A baby in the United States has survived a horrific car crash that claimed the life of its mother.
The car, driven by 25-year-old mother, Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, was discovered upside down in icy water after veering off the road.
The wreckage was found the following day, after 18-month-old Lily was trapped in the car for 14 hours.
Fairfax Media reports Ms Groesbeck was driving home with baby Lily the previous evening around 10pm, when the accident occurred.
Temperatures dropped to nearly freezing over night, and was thankfully discovered by a fisherman the following day.
Authorities have said it’s a miracle the child survived. During the rescue efforts three police officers and four firefighters who entered the river were treated for hypothermia, KSTU Fox 13 Salt Lake City reports.
Baby Lily is in a critical but stable condition.
2. Jewish leaders are renewing community after damning child sex abuse enquiry.
The Australian Jewish community is facing an overhaul, after several leading members resigned following revelations emerging from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The royal commission exposed the cover-up of sexual abuse allegations against senior employees at the Orthodox schools in Melbourne and Sydney, Yeshivah College.
Peter Wertheim of the Executive Council of Jewry condemned past behaviour regarding abuse claims, and is determined to turn over a new leaf in the community.
“Obviously there has been a problem in the past and I think right up to the present time with some religious leaders who have encouraged their members not to report child abuse and that’s just not on,” Mr Wertheim told the ABC.
Related content: Student at Yeshivah has scholarship revoked after sex abuse complaint.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel from Jewish House in Sydney said the community was working to overcome the culture of silence that led to failure to respond to allegations of abuse.
“There are also workshops planned to educate leaders on how to deal with allegations, with a special workshop to be held in Sydney this week, led by Dr Cathy Kezelman, the president of Adults Surviving Child Abuse,” Rabbi Kastel said.
“So we are working together with communal leaders, to work with rabbis, with professionals, to be able to re-evaluate all the policies and procedures.”
3. #IStandWithMariam: Australian activist becomes victim of international hate campaign.
By ABC News
Overseas race hate groups are intensifying their attacks on a Muslim community advocate, five months after she protested against the sale of a “bigoted” singlet by Woolworths.
In October, Mariam Veiszadeh was one of many Twitter users to publicly object to the sale of the singlet, which displayed an Australian flag and the words “If you don’t love it, leave”.
At the time Ms Veiszadeh received hundreds of abusive social media comments, but afterWoolworths removed the singlet from the Cairns store the story seemed to fizzle out.
However months later, she has received a barrage of death threats and racial abuse.
Race hate groups, led by the American blog site The Daily Stormer, are urging people around the world to use social media to attack Ms Veiszadeh.
The attacks include hundreds of tweets, Facebook messages and cropped images of Ms Veiszadeh holding a pig or buried in sand.
“The most recent abuse I have received was sparked by a neo-Nazi website based in the US who I believe has ties to groups here,” she said.
“They published an incredibly vile article devoting a great deal of attention to me, urging their 5,000 followers to send me as many hateful, religiously motivated offensive tweets as possible.”
Ms Veiszadeh said she was surprised that almost half a year after the singlet controversy, the campaign against her was gaining momentum.
“I went to Twitter and basically just tweeted that I felt outraged that Woolies were allegedly selling what seemed like a bigoted message on a singlet,” Ms Veiszadeh said.
“The sentiments that I expressed that day on Twitter were expressed by thousands of other people, but it seemed that people took offence to what I said.
“I have unfortunately been on the receiving end of death threats that have come my way but I am determined to keep fighting against it.”
This article was originally published by the ABC and was republished here with full permission.
4. Sexual harassment in hospitals is a widespread issue, surgeon claims.
Last week, surgeon Gabrielle McMullin declared that sexual harrassment is so rife, and the reporting system is so corrupt, female doctors are likely to lose their positions if they report abuse — and she isn’t alone in her concern.
After Fairfax Media published the article quoting her, the media organisation received an outpouring of reports from female doctors who told of their experience with harassment from male colleagues.
Some said they were scared that complaining about sexual harassment would work against them due to a culture of “untouchables”, or leading male doctors.
A female surgeon in Melbourne who didn’t provide her name for fear it would damage her career, told Fairfax that a male surgeon once told her to “get some knee pads and learn to suck c–k” in front of other colleagues.
Related content: Are pregnant women harming their babies to try and stay thin? We ask a doctor.
She also said that a colleague inappropriately touched her several times, and was ostracised after rejecting his advances.
“They think they own you, a lot of these guys. As soon as you stand up, you cop a lot,” she said.
Last week, Dr McMullin told the ABC: “What I tell my trainees is that, if you are approached for sex, probably the safest thing to do in terms of your career is to comply with the request.”
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I stand with Mariam