The World Today

Hundreds of thousands of workers are now facing a cut to their pay with the Fair Work Commission slashing Sunday penalty rates for some awards. In a long-awaited landmark ruling, the workplace relations tribunal acknowledged that its decision will cause hardship but said Sunday rates for fast food, retail and hospitality workers are too high. The unions are reacting angrily and vowing to campaign to get the Government to change the Fair Work Act. The Workplace Relations Minister says she's furious that a scare campaign has already begun.

Two years after it was due, the Fair Work Commission has handed its decision on penalty rates, deciding to cut penalties for Sundays and public holidays for the retail, and hospitality industries. Former Labor MP Martin Ferguson says it's about the modernisation of the Hospitality Industry Award, and that it will actually lead to the reduction of casual employment, one of the objectives of the ACTU.

Protesters are outside the Fair Work Commission in Melbourne, as the decision is heard. Workers in hospitality and retail are to be faced with pay cuts as penalty rates reduce. Greens MP Adam Bandt tells the media he will fight the decision.

The Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell says small businesses are relieved by the Fair Work decision on penalty rates. She says more jobs will be generated as a result of the lower Sunday rates.

Australian airline Qantas has announced a 25 per cent fall in half year profit to $515 million. The company is back in the black just a few years after posting a record loss of almost $3 billion, but senior business correspondent Peter Ryan said Qantas is dealing with a number of one of costs, including selling terminal spaces, and redundancy pay offs.

James Packer's Crown Resorts has announced a big financial hit today. The gambling and resorts company's profit has fallen around nine per cent to $191 million. This is the first financial result since 18 Crown employees were detained in China over allegations of illegal gambling.

US-backed Iraqi forces continue to close in on Islamic State fighters occupying the western half of Mosul. The militant group was ousted from eastern Mosul last month. But the fight to take the western part of the city is expected to become more difficult as forces get closer to the labyrinthine inner city where Islamic State defences are believed to be strong. Roughly three quarters of a million civilians remain inside the city and have no clear escape route.

Three members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors have told the child sexual abuse Royal Commission that the body is struggling to function properly because of a lack of funding and administrative support from the Vatican.

As the US-backed Iraqi forces make headway against IS, Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meeting with her US counterpart, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Amongst other issues, the two will discuss what a victory against ISIS would look like. The World Today spoke to James Brown, a former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who is now a policy analyst at the United States Studies Centre.

The question of whether there could be life in other parts of our universe may be a step closer to being answered. A team of American and European scientists has discovered the existence of seven small planets, each around the size of Earth, orbiting a star close to our own solar system. Three of the newly discovered planets are in what scientists call the Goldilocks zone, where life would be sustainable.