31 children and adults killed in mass shooting at Thailand daycare centre.

At least 31 people have been killed in a mass shooting at a child daycare centre in northeast Thailand, with a manhunt underway for the shooter, police say.

"There are at least 20 dead but details were still coming in," Deputy Police spokesperson Archon Kraitong told Reuters.

The death toll was later upgraded to 31, with police saying both children and adults had been killed, and the gunman was an ex-policeman.

A government spokesperson said all agencies had been alerted to take action and apprehend the shooter.

The government said the shooting took place at a child daycare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu. The shooting occurred in the afternoon local time, while children at the centre were sleeping.

Mass shootings are rare in Thailand, but in 2020, a soldier killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.

More to come.

With AAP. 

A Sydney man faces up to 10 years behind bars after being charged with trying to blackmail Optus customers caught up in the data breach.

Australian Federal Police allege the 19-year-old got customer records from the breach and texted 93 people demanding they hand over $2000 or he would use their data for other crimes.

The Rockdale man is charged with using a telecommunication network with the intent to blackmail, and dealing with identification information in an illegal manner. Police allege the man began his scam last week and continued until he was arrested on Thursday morning, when officers seized a phone linked to the text messages.

No money has been transferred as a result of the scam.

"We understand how worried some members of the community are," AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said. "I want to give the community reassurance the AFP and our partners are working around the clock to help protect your personal information."

Assistant Commissioner Gough said the man was not suspected of being the individual responsible for the Optus breach but allegedly tried to financially benefit from the stolen data that was dumped on an online forum.

Sydney teen demanded $2,000 from Optus customers as part of data breach scam, AFP says https://t.co/cjGfX4gJWA

— ABC News (@abcnews) October 6, 2022

The man will face Sydney Central Local Court at a later date and faces a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.

"The warning is clear – do not test the capability or dedication of law enforcement," Ms Gough said. "Just because there has been one arrest does not mean there won't be more."

Mobile phone and internet customers will be better protected from fraud under new regulations to be introduced after the breach. Telcos will be able to better coordinate with financial institutions to fight potentially malicious activity if customer details are compromised under plans announced by the federal government.

The amendments would let the companies temporarily share key information such as driver's licence, Medicare and passport numbers with financial service firms to let them better monitor and safeguard breaches.

Optus would also be able to share identifiers with Commonwealth, state and territory agencies to prevent fraud following the data breach, which left the personal details of millions of customers exposed to hackers.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the move strengthened safeguards in the event of a similar breach.

"What this is all about is to try and reduce the impact of this data breach on Optus customers and to enable financial institutions to implement enhanced safeguards and monitoring," she told reporters.

"We take people's personal information and the protection of that very seriously."

With AAP.

Listen to The Quicky’s Evening Headlines which unpacks this story below:

Content warning: This post mentions sexual assault and may be distressing for some readers.

Brittany Higgins says former defence industry minister Linda Reynolds told her she did not think her accused rapist was "capable of something like that".

A jury is hearing evidence from Higgins in the ACT Supreme Court criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann. Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.

The pair were working in Senator Reynold's office as staffers at the time of the alleged assault. Higgins told the court she had a meeting with Senator Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown after the alleged rape.

She described being panicked because she was in the same office with the couch where Lehrmann had allegedly assaulted her.

"The words were a little lost ... she (Reynolds) said something to the effect of 'I didn't think he was capable of something like that'," Ms Higgins told the court on Thursday.

She said Senator Reynolds apologised to her, but the conversation then turned to the upcoming 2019 federal election.

Brittany Higgins told police she spoke about the alleged rape in Parliament House with then Ministers, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash PRIOR to going public with the allegations. @9NewsAUS

— Lauren Tomasi (@LaurenTomasi) October 5, 2022

After dreaming of becoming a political media adviser, Higgins said she feared she would lose her job if she made a complaint to the police.

"My interpretation of that was that if I raised it with police there were going to be problems." 

She said she wanted to keep working for the Liberal Party and assist during the election but also wanted to proceed with the complaint. 

"It became really apparent it was my job on the line ... I'd gone my entire life working towards this moment." 

She said she decided to "toe the party line" and not proceed further with the police complaint. Higgins worked with Senator Reynolds during the election but told the court she felt as though the senator did not like her because of the problems she had caused with the allegations.

"I felt like she (Reynolds) did not like being around me based on the fact of how little she would have me on the road with her as a media adviser," Higgins said.

After the election, Higgins began working with another Liberal senator, Michaelia Cash. 

The jury was earlier shown footage from inside Parliament House on the night Higgins was allegedly raped. She cried in the witness box as the CCTV footage was played.

The jury was also shown pictures of Senator Reynolds' office taken by police two years after the alleged assault. They show various angles of the office as well as a photo of a grey couch directly in front of the minister's desk.

When a close-up of the couch was shown, Higgins described how she was "jammed up in the corner" when she woke up to Lehrmann having sex with her.

"I felt like a prop," she said.

Visual footage showed the pair arriving at the building entrance in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, 2019 and being signed in by two security guards. Footage also showed Lehrmann leaving Parliament House about an hour later and an Uber collecting him.

Higgins was seen leaving the building at 10am that morning, wearing a jacket she said she borrowed from a bag of clothes in the minister's office.

With AAP.

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

Content warning: This post mentions sexual assault and may be distressing for some readers.

Bruce Lehrmann has been accused of trying to kiss Brittany Higgins weeks before allegedly raping her inside a minister's office at Parliament House.

The allegation came during day two of Lehrmann's trial in the ACT Supreme Court. He has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent.

In a police interview from May 2021, Higgins said Lehrmann "made a pass" at her while the pair were waiting for their respective rides home.

"I rebuffed the kiss, mostly out of shock because I wasn't anticipating it," she told the court yesterday. 

Higgins alleged the incident happened after a staff dinner at The Kingston Hotel, a restaurant near parliament, but said she didn't think too much about it. 

Brittany Higgins has arrived at the Canberra Supreme Court. She will be first up in the witness box today at 10am. Her police interview will be played to the court, before we hear directly from the 26 year old. @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/e3S262y3OO

— Lauren Tomasi (@LaurenTomasi) October 4, 2022

The court also heard Higgins told police she felt "trapped" and "not human" during the alleged rape.  

"It didn't feel like it was about me at all," she said.

Later in a text message to her ex-boyfriend Ben Dillaway, Higgins said she had been "barely lucid".

"I really don't feel like it was consensual at all," she said.

The trial continues today.

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

- With AAP.

Nearly a decade since Julia Gillard declared in Australian parliament she would not be lectured by then-opposition leader Tony Abbott on sexism and misogyny, she has reflected on the speech that attracted global attention.

The former Labor leader said her chief-of-staff Ben Hubbard asked if she was sure she wanted to respond to an opposition bid to remove then-lower house speaker Peter Slipper, who had sent sexist text messages about women's genitalia.

"I wandered over to the adviser's box and I said to the advisers there, 'I'm going to take this, I'm going to do the reply'," she told a crowd in Sydney last night. 

"And Ben said to me 'are you sure?'. Because normally I used to hold myself above the tactics of the opposition on any given day," she said. "Yes, I am sure because I am sick of this s***."

What an incredible privilege to be in a room with 5000+ Australians to hear from @JuliaGillard about that speech. The opening montage left me sobbing & was worth price of admission alone. 😭😭😭 #NotNowNotEver pic.twitter.com/JWDJFsVWed

— Georgie Dent (@georgiedent) October 5, 2022

Gillard said for many years she felt the speech was her constant companion.

"Wherever I went it was walking with me alongside me," she said. "But I've come to realise that it's not my companion, it's yours because it's become your anthem of defiance when you are subjected to a sexist slur."

The former prime minister said the unplanned speech was fuelled by a cool anger.

"I felt analytical. I knew precisely what I wanted to say," she said. "And I felt empowered, not embattled, not cowed."

- With AAP.

Actor Alec Baldwin and the producers for the Rust movie have reached a settlement with the family of the movie's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot dead during filming last year.

Under the deal, the family's civil lawsuit against Baldwin and others will be dismissed and filming of the movie will resume in January with all the original principal players, Hutchins' husband, Matthew, said in a statement.

Production of the low-budget film was taking place at Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021, when Halyna Hutchins, 42, died. Baldwin was rehearsing with a revolver when it fired a live round that hit the Ukrainian cinematographer as well as movie director Joel Souza, who survived.

"I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr Baldwin)," said Hutchins, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer who under the deal will become executive producer of the movie.

"All of us believe Halyna's death was a terrible accident."

Alec Baldwin has reached a settlement with the family of a crew member who was killed on the set of his movie 'Rust'

In a twist, the husband of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins will be an executive producer when the film recommences filming.

📍 DETAILS: https://t.co/K9rfsDl7YI pic.twitter.com/1tanIRRD6q

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) October 5, 2022

Baldwin and others could face criminal charges over Hutchins' death, a New Mexico prosecutor said last month. 

The actor has denied responsibility for Hutchins' death and said live rounds should never have been allowed on the set.

 - With AAP. 

Content warning: This episode discusses details of sexual assault, please reach out to the resources listed below for help if you are in need. 

One of the country's most anticipated criminal trials got underway this week, with former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins taking her alleged rapist to court over an incident in Parliament House in 2019.

But getting to this point hasn't been an easy road for anyone involved and for many survivors of sexual assault, even getting to have their day in court is too far out of their reach. 

In today's episode, we look at how the criminal justice system is not set up for victims of sexual violence and what needs to be done to make the system more balanced for both the alleged victim and their accused. 

Missed yesterday's news feed? Catch up on what women were talking about here.

Feature Image: Getty.